The Best Games of April and May 2014

by lichter

Another month, another set of wonderful games to insult praise. Okay so maybe this is a little late, but I'm going to have to blame someone else for that. Probably Olli. April was a month of surprises as we got not one, but two good games from Grand Finals, and one per matchup except for ZvZ. We had a good swarmhost game, and an excellent PvP, and a mythical TvT. Though fewer games were recommended than in March, we did see several games that should make it to the year end list. Things slowed down in May, but we still got ourselves a good bunch of games.

If you want to see the list of every great game since HotS was released, go and check out the Best Games/VODs of HoTS thread if you haven't already.

Note: Some of these games aren't so great as they are hilarious.

Zest vs soO on Alterzim Stronghold - VOD

It's become a motif in SC2 that all finals games suck. Try to think of the last time you saw a great game at a finals, and you'll likely have to go all the way back to Code S Season 2 2012 for Mvp vs Squirtle. The game usually talked about is the game on Metropolis, but the only reason people remember that game is because of the vortex on Mvp's BC Fleet. Comprehensively good games that are close throughout and display high level gameplay from both players are rare for finals, and it's understandable due to the nerviness of high stakes games. The greatest players are often the ones fighting for titles, and yet they always end up giving us stinkers.

When Zest and soO lined up to meet in last season's finals, there was a collective sigh from most casual fans that one of two no-names was about to be crowned champion. Surprisingly, this may go down in history as one of the best games ever played in a GSL Finals. Down 2-3, Zest was having a hard time playing against soO's use of muta corruptor, and his wins were mostly slow and methodical comebacks. On Alterzim Stronghold, Zest found himself unable to apply pressure and constantly 2 to 3 bases behind. With 10 times the bank, soO had the ability to max out on any composition he desired, while Zest had to maximize the use of his units while slowly building an unstoppable deathball. Was there any way that Zest could play 10 times more efficiently than soO?

An unbelievable crunch time win, either way.

Ruin vs Soulkey on Crux Frost - VOD

To continue our theme of things we don't often see, here's a good game with swarmhosts. In addition, it also includes one of the funnier victory celebrations we've seen, as Ruin decided to spell out an "S" on the map, presumably to proclaim his return to Code S. Or maybe it means something else, as it was difficult to tell what Ruin was grinning about near the end of the game.

Choosing Frost as his map, many an observer would have thought this a bad map pick, but Ruin knew that Soulkey preferred to play a Swarmhost heavy style in ZvP. Banking on abusing the immobility and late anti-air of the bacne battalion, Ruin opened with an oracle, 2 void rays, and triple stargate phoenix. This caught Soulkey completely off guard, allowing Ruin to float straight into the Zerg natural and run amok. Though it would not end the game, Ruin's 15 supply lead and equal number of bases forced Soulkey to turtle with swarmhosts in hopes of catching up. This does sound like the recipe for a snorefest, but Soulkey's use of burrowed roach hit squads all game long, as well as Ruin's knack for harassing with blink stalkers kept things interesting as they built their armies up. They would clash several times with neither player claiming a decisive advantage, and unable to claim more bases due to their successful denials, would have to play out a scrappy end game with less than 100 supply.

TY vs Reality on Merry Go Round - VOD

Whoa what, a TvT?! Yes guys, we recommend a TvT for the first time since January. Though everyone-except-DarkLordOlli's favorite mirror has been conspicuously absent from our lists in 2014 despite dominating it for most of SC2's life, it's just a matter of time until I start recommending 5 TvTs a month. It's gotta happen, right? RIGHT?

Curiously, 2 out of the 3 TvTs we've recommended so far have been ProLeague games between TY and Reality (and all 3 have included TY), and this one was just as good as the last. It's a classic mech vs mech slugfest, a bloody crawl until the Sky Terran transition. It's also one of the few times we've ever seen a player open with bio for harassment and map presence only to transition later into mech. It seemed like a poor decision from TY as his bio squad was unable to find holes in Reality's defense while his mech backbone could not stop Reality's slow advance, putting him in a disadvantage. But TY's diligence in using his odd composition to protect his stronger economy allowed him to get even, and both players would trade blows for another 10 minutes until the climactic air battle.

sOs vs Classic on Maze - VOD

When Maze debuted for ProLeague Round 3, the community was equal parts amused, perplexed, and excited. While some ProLeague maps such as Korhal Floating Island have provided both innovation and quality games, some maps caused only cheap thrills and consternation. Yes, I'm looking at you Arkanoid. With Maze's love of destructible rocks, some thought that it would prove just as silly as Arkanoid. And though it's still too early to say if we'll ever see anything other than PvP on it, it has so far proven to be an interesting map, provided you enjoy Sky Toss.

Sure, Sky Toss can get a little silly when you're just guessing who has more phoeni (which Wolf insists is correct), but sOs is once again the great innovator as he begins to add Tempests to force engagements and siege bases. Most phoenix based PvPs tend to be decided by one player achieving air dominance with a superior number of phoenixes, but sOs's deviation may have just changed things up once again. Unable to match this superior composition, Classic is forced to play things out by expanding everywhere at once, taking advantage of sOs' lack of mobility and weak building damage. While sOs continued to pump out more stargate units, now including void rays and carriers, Classic transitioned into mass archon in a desperate attempt to stop the Jin Air Fleet.

ToD vs Jaedong on some map I dunno - VOD

Nah just kidding I just wanted a reason to use this pic.

Trap vs soO on Overgrowth - VOD

One of the biggest gripes about Zerg is the lack of interesting cheeses and all ins. 6/9/10pool, roach ling all in, baneling bust, maybe proxy hatch... and that's about it. Zergs are supposed to 15 hatch every game anyway, right? Well, who says 15 hatch can't be a cheesy opening?

Taking the opposite gold base on Overgrowth, soO uses his 15 hatch as a springboard for a rare all in most fondly remembered from Nestea vs anypro on Dual Sight. On this map, however, the mineral bonus from the gold allows soO to mass produce queens and spine crawlers at an alarming rate, and despite Trap's scouting and generous heaping of cannons, all soO had to do was push his creep and crawl his way into range. 10 minutes well spent.

Soulkey vs sOs on Merry Go Round - VOD | Paywall

When I previewed this Code S group, I knew this matchup was likely to happen, but I expected the series to be a painful wreck, like all Soulkey vs sOs games should be. Despite being two of the best players on the planet, their encounters often confuse more than entertain like most team kills tend to be (even though they haven't been teammates in a while). Instead, we were treated with the best series of the Ro32.

While Games 1 and 2 were solid, the deciding game in the winners match was a tense tug of war between two titans of the game. They would prove equals for much of its duration, as their attempts at aggression could find no holes in the early game. Their army movements seemed flawless, but Soulkey would be the first to draw blood with repeated snipes of sOs' third base. However, his roach hydra viper army was on a timer as sOs amassed an unstoppable army, and a muta switch looked inevitable. While many a Protoss have fallen to this trap, sOs deflected the cloud of mutas, and the first great battle ended in a draw. With both players down to 90 supply and bleeding profusely, the two former Woongjin Aces would scrape through another 15 minutes of constant action. With a transferred main and a tech tree turned to ashes, Soulkey was on the ropes. But sOs had almost no economy left and could not hold on to his bases. Neither player was committing mistakes, but only one player was to advance to the Ro16 in first place, and it would come down to one last desperate engagement. Just the way we like it.

Classic vs soO on Crux Frost - VOD

It goes without saying that we writers are so glad that the term "cheese" was coined for early all in strategies. It just makes it so much easier for a writer to string together puns and analogies with something as fun and varied as cheese. Imagine if they had called it a "lima bean" back then? Nobody likes lima beans, guys. Not even stuchiu's evil stomach likes them.

Speaking of analogies, this game is the equivalent of the quattro formaggi, a pizza using four different cheeses. Okay, so maybe my analogy falls apart here, because instead of four different kinds, Classic just... piles on the same layer of cheese 4 times in one serving. But when it's good cheese, is there really such a thing as too much? I know, I know I seem to feature a lot of cheeses on Best Games, but have you ever really seen a quadruple cannon rush in a pro game? As a Zerg player, this game made me cringe, but this trainwreck of a game from soO at least makes me feel better about all the times I've been cannoned on ladder.

Yes, May wasn't a great month for good games.

Full List of April and May 2014 Games

April

April 1: SPL R2 Finals
Maru vs Billowy - VOD

April 5: Code S Finals
Zest vs soO - VOD

April 11: Code A
Ruin vs Soulkey - VOD

April 14: WCS EU Finals
MC vs MMA - VOD

April 15: SPL R3
TY vs Reality - VOD

April 24: GSL Global Championship
Zest vs PartinG - VOD

April 24: GSL Global Championship
MMA vs Revival - VOD

April 27: SPL R3
sOs vs Classic - VOD

April 27: DH Bucharest
INnoVation vs Welmu - VOD

May

May 2: Code S Ro32
Trap vs soO - VOD

May 4: Lonestar Clash
Polt vs Bomber - VOD

May 13: SPL Round 3
Bbyong vs hyvaa - VOD

May 17: SPL Round 3 Playoffs
EffOrt vs Maru - VOD

May 21: Code S Ro32
Soulkey vs sOs - VOD | Paywall

May 28: Code S Ro16
Classic vs soO - VOD

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Grand List Compiler: monk, lichter.
Photos: ESL