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TaeJa wins DreamHack Winter 2013

Forum Index > SC2 General
95 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 Next All

TaeJa wins DreamHack Winter 2013

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
December 1st, 2013 00:43 GMT
2013 WCS

DreamHack
Winter 2013



Brackets and standings on
Liquipedia

TaeJa wins DreamHack Winter 2013

by Waxangel

Summer of (T)TaeJa? After DreamHack Winter, "Year of TaeJa" may be the more accurate phrase. Liquid's Terran ace went on a blistering run through DreamHack's year-end tournament, winning nine consecutive series to capture the championship. His finals opponent was the only other player in the tournament to go nearly undefeated in Startale's (Z)Life. TaeJa had defeated Life on day two to send him down to the losers bracket, but Life made short work of the upstart Patience to earn a chance at revenge in the grand finals. However, TaeJa proved to be Life's better once more, defeating him 4 - 2 to seize the title.

DreamHack Winter is TaeJa's fifth major title on the year, and it is also his most impressive. His wins at HomeStory Cup and ASUS ROG had been criticized as being too easy, not having enough of the top tier Koreans to be impressive. At DreamHack Winter, TaeJa took out a veritable who's who of modern StarCraft, including sOs, HerO, INnoVation, MMA, and the aforementioned Life. He ended the tournament undefeated in series, having gone 8 - 0 in the tournament.

TaeJa also achieved a personal goal of finally winning a $20,000+ finals grand prize (the exact sum was 200,000 Swedish Kronor). Despite having won seven tournaments prior, none of them offered the kind of big money of DreamHack's annual grand finale.

In a year where few players have been able hold onto the seat of "best in the world" for long, TaeJa has at least taken a temporary spot on that seat. With the 2013 tournament year wrapping up, it seems likely that he will keep that title until the arrival of a new year and new tournaments.

4

Liquid`TaeJa

(T)TaeJa < Frost > (Z)Life
(T)TaeJa < Polar Night > (Z)Life
(T)TaeJa < Yeonsu > (Z)Life
(T)TaeJa < Derelict Watcher > (Z)Life
(T)TaeJa < Whirlwind > (Z)Life
(T)TaeJa < Bel'Shir Vestige > (Z)Life

TaeJa wins DreamHack Winter 2013
2

ST_Life


Game One - Frost: The first game saw both players agree to a straight up duel, securing expansions and gearing up for a fight in the mid-late game. For a while it seemed like Life could take advantage of the far apart, diagonal starting positions with his trademark counter-attacks, but TaeJA make sure to keep his backdoor locked and bases secure. Life soon found himself in danger as TaeJa started marching across the map during the transition to a hive army. While Life did manage to survive to produce ultralisks, brood lords, and infestors, he was unable to accumulate them in significant numbers before the Terran infantry came charging in. TaeJa's army stomped over the motley array of hive units to take the first game.

Game Two - Polar Night: After losing to TaeJa in a standard match in game one, Life hit back in game two by winning in the strangest and most improvisational of games. Neither player bothered to scout as they went for a proxy 2 rax and proxy hatchery respectively, and the situation quickly broke down into Life going for offensive spine crawlers while TaeJa turtled up and teched to tanks.

While TaeJa successfully cranked out enough tanks to defend the attack and clear out the offensive hatchery, Life ended up ahead nonetheless after buying plenty of time and delaying TaeJa's natural with heaps of creep. Deciding there was no use to dragging the game out, TaeJa pulled his marines and tanks across the map for an all-in attack, but GG'd out after Life defended handily with roaches and zerglings.

Game Three - Yeonsu: The third game played out in yet another different way, this time with TaeJa playing standard macro while Life went for hyper-aggression. A two-hatch mutalisk rush was followed by mass muta-ling baneling busts, but TaeJa held fast against Life's attacks while slowly accumulating an upgrade advantage from his two engineering bays.

It seemed all but over for Life once he let Taeja hit 2/2 infantry upgrades without having done any meaningful damage with his attacks, but in typical Life fashion, he worked miracles with constant backdoor attacks to keep himself in the game. Unfortunately for Life, his brilliant play only amounted to an a delaying action. TaeJa cleverly set up a mass widow-mine trap at one of his expansions, waiting for Life's mutalisks to bite. When Life inevitably did, losing a giant chunk of his mutalisk flock, it only took one final parade-push for TaeJa to end the game.

[image loading]
As it turns out, TaeJa enjoys winning.

Game Four - Derelict Watcher: TaeJa and Life decided to go at it in another macro-duel for the fourth game, playing fairly standard openers as they geared up for a late game fight. Life was able to work his magic with backdoor attacks once more, using speedlings to hamper TaeJa's economic growth, all the while surging ahead on upgrades with fast double evolution chambers. When it came time for the pivotal marine-mine vs. muta-ling engagement, Life's 2/2 army was able to decisively crush TaeJa's 1/1 troops to take the game.

Game Five - Whirlwind: Not surprisingly, the expansive and wide open Whirlwind saw both players go for a straight up macro duel yet again. Life looked to repeat the pattern from the previous game, getting fast evolution chambers and pulling ahead on harvesters with some effective zergling runbys. However, he found himself caught off guard once TaeJa started rallying his troops toward Life's base, hitting before mutalisks or zergling speed. A few highly efficient skirmishes from TaeJa allowed him to destroy Life's fourth base, but he didn't let up the pressure there. A constant stream of marines and widow mines marched toward Life's territory, taking yet more efficient engagements. Eventually, Life was simply worn down by the constant pressure, and GG'd out.

Game Six - Bel'Shir Vestige: With his tournament life on the line, Life opted to play straight up, and TaeJa was more than happy to oblige him.

Using his reaper-hellion-banshee opener to take a small advantage, TaeJa was able to capitalize by bringing out a powerful bio force to destroy Life's fourth base before the StarTale Zerg was ready to defend. Life seemed to be in deep trouble as he was on equal bases with a Terran, but adversity once again brought out the best in him. Some lowered supply depots here and some out of position marines there were all Life needed to spring his counter attacks, taking chunks out of TaeJa's SCV line and buying himself invaluable time.

Yet, TaeJa never became flustered as Life threatened to claw his way back into the series, and kept his focus on the main objectives. He slowly secured his defenses, all the while making sure Life could not take that all-important fourth base. Slowly but surely, Life started to run out of steam economically, while finding less holes in TaeJa's defense to exploit. TaeJa slowly rolled his economy and upgrade advantages in unstoppable push, which Life engaged in a desperation engagement before surrendering the championship to TaeJa.

[image loading]
Life types the final GG.


Writers: Waxangel.
Screens: DreamHack
Editor: Waxangel.
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TL+ Member
Ichabod
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1659 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-01 00:45:45
December 01 2013 00:45 GMT
#2
More Also importantly, he defeated the Champagne final boss at the end.
Tobblish
Profile Joined August 2011
Sweden6404 Posts
December 01 2013 00:45 GMT
#3
Wooooo another win and another great Finals.
Liquid needs a nerf on those Dreamhack wins
The curse is real
fusefuse
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Estonia4644 Posts
December 01 2013 00:45 GMT
#4
awwwwww yeah YEAR OF TAEJA continues
Liquipedia@jkursk
SaleritoCHILE
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Chile28 Posts
December 01 2013 00:48 GMT
#5
EAEAEAEA 3M
Bahia Inglesa
Holloworb
Profile Joined November 2011
Norway345 Posts
December 01 2013 00:50 GMT
#6
GZ on the big win! :D
ACrow
Profile Joined October 2011
Germany6583 Posts
December 01 2013 00:51 GMT
#7
gg wp Taeja, it was an excellent series, anyone who missed it should definitely watch those games.
Get off my lawn, young punks
Proseat
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Germany5113 Posts
December 01 2013 00:51 GMT
#8
Very nice and quick summary, Wax!
The Rise and Fall of SlayerS -- a timeline: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=378097
The_Templar
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
your Country52797 Posts
December 01 2013 00:52 GMT
#9
On December 01 2013 09:45 fusefuse wrote:
awwwwww yeah YEAR OF TAEJA continues

imo DECADE of TaeJa would be preferable
Moderatorshe/her
TL+ Member
TAMinator
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia2706 Posts
December 01 2013 00:52 GMT
#10
On December 01 2013 09:45 Ichabod wrote:
More Also importantly, he defeated the Champagne final boss at the end.

that moment had a bigger cheer than we he won the actual tournament
Keeemy
Profile Joined November 2012
Finland7855 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-01 01:04:53
December 01 2013 00:55 GMT
#11
Good games. Grats Taeja and Liquid!

And this is coming from a bitter Life fan.
Hello
hansonslee
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States2027 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-01 00:59:29
December 01 2013 00:58 GMT
#12
I remember when Taeja played against Life in the GSL and got creamed hard, it's just amazing how much Taeja has grown as a player and personality!

I hope he doesn't retire yet! :D
Seed's # 1 fan!!! #ForVengeance
L4ff3n
Profile Joined March 2013
Norway9 Posts
December 01 2013 01:02 GMT
#13
Yay! TaeJa fighting! Super omega congratulations!!
Windows is not the answer, Windows is the question. NO is the answer.
The_Templar
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
your Country52797 Posts
December 01 2013 01:02 GMT
#14
On December 01 2013 09:58 hansonslee wrote:
I remember when Taeja played against Life in the GSL and got creamed hard, it's just amazing how much Taeja has grown as a player and personality!

I hope he doesn't retire yet! :D

I'm going to be very, very sad if he retires in the next year.
But TL is a positive influence so he will be fine
Moderatorshe/her
TL+ Member
TRaFFiC
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada1448 Posts
December 01 2013 01:04 GMT
#15
Dreamhack really needs a post game show. Taeja won and walked off stage with this trophy in minutes. I want to revel in victory. After game analysis and stuff. ;d
2v2, 1v1, Zerg, Terran http://www.twitch.tv/trafficsc2
StarStruck
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
25339 Posts
December 01 2013 01:07 GMT
#16
Rename DreamHack to TeamLiquid's bitch.
Heyoka
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Katowice25012 Posts
December 01 2013 01:14 GMT
#17
Good job Taeja!
@RealHeyoka | ESL / DreamHack StarCraft Lead
Carbonyl
Profile Blog Joined August 2012
United States334 Posts
December 01 2013 01:21 GMT
#18
WOO TAEJA! GJ Liquid and Taeja. And he said he had been considering stopping playing...
It takes quite a long time of playing and watching a video game before you realize how bad at it you really are.
iHirO
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United Kingdom1381 Posts
December 01 2013 01:24 GMT
#19
Still waiting for that life sized Taeja statue to be erected outside TeamLiquid HQ.
GraphicsThis is for all you new people: I only have one rule. Everyone fights. No one quits. You don't do your job, I'll shoot you myself. You get me?
turek1412
Profile Joined November 2013
Poland2 Posts
December 01 2013 01:29 GMT
#20
Gratz TeaJa
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