![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/heritage/shl_coveragebanner.jpg)
Team Liquid Coverage
Out, out, you chobo! Get out of my thread!
This noob's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
- William Shakespeare, on the idiots posting about multitasking prowess
This noob's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
- William Shakespeare, on the idiots posting about multitasking prowess
+ Show Spoiler [Results of Heritage League Week 1] +
Day 1
NaDa >
Nal_rA on Outsider
YellOw >
ToSsGirL on Destination
Savior >
Kingdom on Neo Medusa
BoxeR >
Reach on Python
Day 2
NaDa >
Kingdom on Nostalgia
iloveoov vs
IPXZerg[gm] on Outsider Not played due to oov being hospitalised.
Reach >
YellOw on Outsider
BoxeR >
Anytime on Destination
Day 1
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Day 2
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![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/heritage/shl_boxerminute.jpg)
Gimme a minute, bro. Lemme show you how it's done.
Broodwar has developed a lot in the past ten years. When looking at the history of this game, however, it's easy to forget, or be ignorant of the fact that we owe much of its history to a little more than a dozen titans who each ruled, dominated and developed an aspect of the game. From The Emperor himself, to Storm Zerg and the Dreamer, the Golden Age of Professional Starcraft was one of colour and vibrancy. By many accounts, the current giants of Broodwar, the likes of Bisu, Jaedong and Flash, are merely standing on the shoulders of these giants, albeit not so much in skill as in terms of gameplay.
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What is there to say about Savior that hasn't already been said? The opinions of fans on once dominant players is interesting. Outside of specific team allegiances, there are two types of fans, those that cheer for dominance and those that cheer for upsets.
During the bonjwas' reigns, people loved to cheer for the player that would defeat iloveoov, or Savior, or Bisu, or whoever. It was easy to see them as unfeeling machines, young kids who came in and crushed the old favorite. Once they were humanized, like Savior had been in the years following Shinhan 3, do we truly appreciate and understand their struggles. We've watched Savior deal very badly with his loss of confidence and skill slippage. We've seen him struggle hard, fighting for every qualification and inching back to competitiveness, step by step. We've accepted that he's never coming back, nowhere close to where he was before 03-03-07.
Now, we finally see the real Ma Jae Yoon. He's not an arrogant robot who crushed the Terrans everyone loved anymore. He's just a man coming to grips with the fact that he's not the player he once was. That is a difficult thing. He's a man struggling with wounded pride, the leader in spirit, if not in play, of a proteam that masterfully brought up several newer younger players to take his place. We finally see how difficult its been for him even though he's had one of the most successful careers ever.
And that is why we cheer for him now, why all the 2009-Destroyer posts are so frequent it's irritating. It's not because he can eke out some meaningless invite win over Kingdom. It's because we can just appreciate that he's still playing, still fighting, and we can celebrate this fact. If he can come back to win a league, that'd be one of the greatest moments ever. But if not, we can appreciate him for what he is now. That's why I follow heritage, because Savior's in the booth, and that's always worth watching.
From the 14CC, to the Protoss FE, and Zerg lair play, many of the races' most important metagame developments were made during the reign of these titans, a reign which arguably ended with Kim Taek Yong ousting Ma Jae Yoon from the throne in the GOMTV MSL S1. Bisu dethroned the Zerg king, and the world of Broodwar fell into turmoil. Warlords fought each other, winning a title, then losing the next to one more powerful, only to win and lose again. Dominance, or dominance in the form once dished out by Lim Yo Hwan and Choi Yun Sung was no longer present. It is this world of chaos that we as Starcraft fans now inhabit. We live in a land of uncertainty, where players come and go like the wind.
It wasn't always like this, however. Many, many moons ago, when titans walked these tilesets, players like Lee Yoon Yeol reigned not for months, but years. Winning title, after title, after title, these tyrants truly earned and wore their Bonjwa title with pride, not as a catchphrase thrown at them by fans going crazy on an Internet forum, but as a mark of veneration bestowed upon them by their peers and rivals. Four Bonjwas have ruled Starcraft, and as others come and go, we will forever whisper their names with trembling.
Heritage League isn't about who has the most mind blowing macro, or who has a PhD in micromanagement. Heritage is about remembering that we're here today, watching the giants of today play the way they do only because of the years and years of solid play that went down during the Golden Era. Yes, let me just come out and say it. No Savior - no Jaedong. No Boxer - no Flash. No Nal_rA - no Bisu. None of these players would be as good as they are today if not for the developments made by the pioneers.
So, before you go out there and make mindless posts comparing the greats of old to the greats of today, just remember that it's apples and oranges. Jaedong, is without a doubt one of the most talented players out there today. He is not, however, and to be fair I should add not yet, a Bonjwa. Ditto Bisu. Ditto Flash. Ditto Leta. Ditto Fantasy. You can make a thousand threads, and tell us all how sloppy the oldies' macro is, how slow they are, and complain about how their multitasking sucks. In doing so, however, you are merely showing your ignorance, for this league is about none of those things. If you don't want to watch Heritage, then by all means, don't. If you do, however, and then choose to comment about it, at least have the decency to treat these players with respect, if not reverence.
The first week of Heritage, if anything, made us remember why we watched these players, and why, at the end of the day, when we finally put away our Broodwar CDs, it is their names that we will remember. This week, some games were good, some games were better, but all were worth watching simply because, and let me just put this out there - because they present us a chance to see some of Starcraft's greatest names play again. If you were around when Nada and oov battled it out for supremacy, this is a chance to relive those moments of gold. If you, on the other hand, started watching progaming when Jaedong walked the Royal Road, then this, for you, is an opportunity to experience Starcraft's most vibrant era for the first time. Let's step through some of Week 1's games and see what happened.
Day 1
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What better way to begin a tournament named Heritage League than to put the most dominant Terran of all time against one of the most creative Protoss players ever to grace a booth. First off, can you say STOOOOOORMS? If not, practice hard, because you're going to be screaming it as you watch this. You're going to watch as Nada executes his legendary Tornado Terran, only to get smacked down by some of the sickest psi storming seen in a long, long time, and then, say LOL and rise again, like the true legend he is.
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Clearly not the match of week or anything, but a good watch, if only to see YellOw schooling the STX Terran using drones. Yes, drones.
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Ah, Ma Jae Yoon, playing a Protoss. Seeing Savior's lair play on Medusa was a little like taking a time machine. Effortlessly using lurker ling to contain, toy and then backdoor Kingdom using a temple break, Savior's play was a lot closer to the lair legend of old, and certainly was a treat to watch. Kingdom fans, stay away from this one.
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Let's face it, everyone went into this game fully expecting The Emperor to go fast dropship, load four vultures, and harass the eyeballs out of Reach's mineral line. This, of course, was not what happened. In an unprecedented change in style, Boxer busted out the macro and tank crawled all over the Protoss in a good, long game that was truly a treat to watch.
Day 2
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After Kingdom's disastrous show against The Maestro on Day 1, the former SKT Protoss recovered to give us an awesome game on a classic map. Carriers, goliaths, and volley after volley of patriot missiles.
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Sair reaver is rarely used these days. A perfect execution of the build is even rarer however, making Reach's play that much more entertaining. Again, practice your rendition of STOOOOORMS for this game. YellOw's hydra play was very, very good as well, making this game a must see.
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A long time ago, Anytime took Boxer's Golden Mouse dreams and stomped all over them. This meeting therefore, was obviously far from friendly. A long drawn out TvP featuring arbiters, stasis and plenty of EMPs, this is a game you don't want to miss.
Moving On
Boxer 2-0, Nada 2-0, the Terrans seem to be dominating so far, with Savior going 1 - 0 due to his game vs iloveoov not being played. Reach sits at 1-1, and with his next encounter being against Tossgirl should have no problem going up a game. All in all, however, it looks like Week 2 is going to bring us plenty of awesome action. Here's what we have to look forward to!
Day 3 - Monday the 20th of July
loveoov < Nostalgia >
NaDa
YellOw < Outsider >
Anytime
Nal_rA < Nostalgia >
Kingdom
Reach < Python >
ToSsGirL
Day 4 - Tuesday the 21st of July
Reach < Destination >
Anytime
BoxeR < Neo Medusa >
ToSsGirL
iloveoov < Neo Medusa >
Kingdom
sAviOr < Destination >
Nal_rA
Day 5 - Friday the 24th of July
BoxeR < Nostalgia >
YellOw
iloveoov < Python >
Nal_rA
Anytime < Python >
ToSsGirL
sAviOr < Neo Medusa >
NaDa
loveoov < Nostalgia >
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Day 4 - Tuesday the 21st of July
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Day 5 - Friday the 24th of July
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In conclusion, naysayers, it is good to remember that nerd rage and blind fanboyism aside, tales told by idiots are washed aside, and that at the curtain call, it will not be poor players who remain astride the stage, but the stalwarts of old. Indeed, now, in these twilight hours of Broodwar, as the applause begins to mount, and an encore is called from the wings, the titans of old have taken to the stage again, and you would be truly be a fool to miss the performance.
Thanks to Fomos for the pics, and Hot_Bid for the guest column!