[SHL] Band of Brothers

Team Liquid Coverage

This story shall the gosu teach the noob;
And a starleague shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And players all over the world, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us in Heritage.

If there ever was a time that we didn't walk, but were thrown down memory lane, it was last week. The second and last leg of the Starcraft Heritage League kicked off this week, and gave us many games to remember. Above all, though, they gave us a chance to see more of these greats of Broodwar than we are ever likely to see again.

After three days of fierce competition, two Terran and two Zerg moved on to the elimination round and today, at the Seoul eStars Festival, the Semi-Finals of the competition were played out in two mirror matches. First, the swarm went head to head, with Storm Zerg taking on The Maestro. The result was what everyone expected. As much as many of us wanted to see a Boxer vs Yellow final, it was evident during the first game itself that it wasn't going to happen. Savior was just streaks ahead of the ACE Zerg from start to finish, and as the final gg was called, it was with relief that we turned to await the TvT.

His Excellency, The Emperor and protector of all that is good and righteous in Professional Starcraft, Lim Yo Hwan, was battling Nada, the Tornado Terran, destroyer of many, and by all accounts the most successful gamer of all time. In an action packed bo3 in which Boxer went 3 port wraith and lost and then recovered with a gutsy 6rax right below Nada's ramp before finally being simply outplayed by the Genius Terran in the third set on Neo Medusa, the Semi Final was decided, and Lee Yoon Yeol moved on to meet Ma Jae Yoon in the finals.

It's no secret that many of us were hoping for a Boxer vs YellOw final. Revisiting the ultimate rivalry was truly a dream, and a dream that was sadly not to be. What Starcraft fans got instead, however, was not all that bad to say the least. Nada vs Savior, perhaps not as poetic as the former, but legendary nevertheless. Shinhan 3 all over again. What would happen? Would the Zerg rise once more to crush the Terran, or would the might of humanoid race crush the invading swarm?

Day 2 of Seoul eStars rolled around, and after a busy morning watching Proleague, fans tuned into catch these legends battling it out. To tell you more about these games in detail I've enlisted the help of a guy who knows both of these players inside out. Men and women of Broodwar, I present Manifesto 7 and his recap of the finals.

Showdown

Shinhan 3 Reloaded.

While OGN may have made this tournament for the fans, and hoped for nostalgia driven ratings, nobody is going to confuse winning the Heritage League with winning the OSL. So what motivation did these players have? For all of them, a shot at 20,000,000 won (16,000 USD) for four play days represented the best chance to hoist a big cardboard cheaque in 2009. With the two favorites of this tournament reaching the finals, a rematch of OSLs gone by was set to go.

The action took place at the e-sports festival, and you can see coverage of that in GoSu's blog posts, and in NeverGG's photo threads. I understand it was held at a late hour, but it was disappointing to see a sparse crowd on hand for the three game set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYh0Pe1_598

Game one on Python opened with NaDa succeeding in one marine expanding, and Savior failing to produce a sunken colony. The end result was a quick firebat strike at the zerg natural which forced Savior to mass produce lings and run his drones away. His hatchery survived, barely, but his mining had been set back. Nada's economy was untouched and his four barracks/factory/port opening blinked steadily with troops joining the front lines.

Having his base at six and his opponent at 3 allowed NaDa to carefully push the small distance between natural and natural with his tanks, and also have reinforcements quickly arrive. While Savior teched from lurkers to hive, Neither player lost much in early skirmishes other than an unfortunate dropship.

At the twelve minute mark the map became too small for the armies, and NaDa set up camp outside the zerg natural. With his main army in the middle of the map and siege tanks raining fire down on his sunken colonies, Savior had to decide, pincer or counter.

He countered. He failed. The attack forced NaDa to lift, but having lost all of his lings Savior was too slow getting up the ramp with his remaining lurkers. NaDa held serve back home with a new tank and vessel, and concluded his offensive at the zerg natural.

Nada 1:0 Savior

It was perplexing how Savior decided to counter with his consume research not even half finished. He had a chance, had he run his lurkers up NaDa's ramp more quickly, so chop up reinforcements, but I don't think there was anything that was going to stop the Terran ball from leveling his own base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32v9JEU8Fsw

The second game on Destination featured a mech build from NaDa. His initial vultures caused annoyance but no damage as Savior controlled the map with hydralisks. As NaDa reached a mass of goliaths Savior tech-switched to mutalisks perfectly, forcing NaDa to invest in turrets and keep his forces at home.

With a combination of hydralisks outside the bridges and mutalisks harassing the mineral lines, NaDa was bottled up. As Savior got too huge, the mutalisks swept in to kill the tanks, and streams of hydralisks flooded into the natural. GG.

NaDa 1:1 Savior

This game was pure domination. Other than the initial scouting scv and four vultures, NaDa never saw the middle bridges. The game was a textbook on how to counter mech on Destination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ-bQRFZnXo

NaDa again opened with a fast expansion while Savior opted for a mutalisk opening. And then more mutas. And then more mutas. With constant reinforcements he took advantage of the ledges in the terrain and pinned NaDa in his base. A crucial moment came when he destroyed a science facility the instant it finished, preventing a vessel from being created and also delaying irradiate. This meant his incoming lurkers became that much more effective.

While his mutaisks rained glave wurms down on the terran workers, Savior expanded steadily around the map, eventually holding 6 mining geysers. While in recent days he may have hurried his tech to defilers, skimping on units, to be eventually being run over, he stayed at lurker tech much longer in this game. As NaDa finally readied his ball to roll out, Savior hammered it back with wave upon wave of lurker/ling. In a desperate war of attrition, there was no way for NaDa to fight against a zerg who owned the entire map. GG.

NaDa 1:2 Savior

While the first game was unsatisfying, the Maestro dominated the second and third set to pull out a convincing win.

To review the entire league, please check out the Heritage League Results and Standings maintained by heyoka.

So, Ma Jae Yoon walked away with the title, and yet, in many ways, each of these former stars did as well. Savior may have won the tournament, but the real winners were everyone who, despite their age, or current skill level, took to the booth once again to give us all good games. This tournament was an opportunity for us to see Starcraft's greatest at work, and that we did, and then some. Here are some of the games from Heritage Week 2 that you really don't want to miss.

Recommended Games
Reach vs Tossgirl on Python
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +

Savior vs Nal_rA on Destination
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +

Yellow vs Anytime on Outsider
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +

Boxer vs Yellow on Nostalgia
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +

Boxer vs Nada on Destination
+ Show Spoiler [VOD] +

Heritage was a treat to watch because it gave us everything from devourers to nukes, and showed that as much as we keep up to date with and praise the advanced builds and strategies of today, it is also good to look back and remember the way the game used to be played.

Above all, as fans watched these games unfold last week they saw, in no uncertain terms that good Starcraft and fast Starcraft can at times be mutually exclusive, and that the greats of old, though undoubtedly slower than the greats of today, had their own unique way of approaching the game. Indeed, when some of these players played, you could almost feel the years of cold aggression offset by strong friendships and good natured banter, and then quickly remember that they had faced each other, and won and lost, and robbed each other of titles, and glories, and laughed, and cried and that this league, though played out over two weeks, really spans the better part of ten years.

It is important to realise that while these men and women had certainly fought each other, and in doing so had rarely shown mercy, they had also inadvertently battled alongside each other, for it was between them that they ruled the maiden decade of Broodwar.

There is a reason that the likes of Bisu, Jaedong and Flash refer to Lim Yo Hwan as Hyung. There is a reason that despite his current form, commentators still get excited whenever Ma Jae Yoon enters the booth. There is a reason why when Kang Min speaks, people listen and that reason was on full display during these two weeks of Starcraft as these titans walked among us. As you watch or rewatch these games, and think about what they have given us, my hope is that years from now, when you look back on this era, that you, even you who were not around when Lim Yo Hwan triple bunker rushed Hong Jin Ho, will be able to point to Heritage and say, I watched those legends, I watched them live, and it was magnificient.

Above all, we hope that as you look back on this tournament you will see it not just as their heritage, but as yours, for even as Broodwar draws to a close over these next few months and years, we will forever carry with us these games, these players, these moments of joy and pain, and that when people, many years from now say hey, do you remember that game Starcraft?, you will only be able to nod and smile slowly to yourself, for where, or how, will you begin to explain to them the sum of what you have experienced here, in these days and hours, these weeks, months and years, in this age of Broodwar when titans walked among us.

Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die.

Let them say we lived in the time of Boxer, Emperor of Terran.

Let them say we lived in the time of Nal_rA, Dreamer of Protoss.

Let them say we lived in the time of Savior, son of the swarm.

Thanks to Manifesto7 for the writeup, Fomos for the pics, and finally to Boxer and company for giving us two weeks of Starcraft we will never forget!

[SHL] Band of Brothers

[SHL] Band of Brothers

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