The Best Games of July 2014

by lichter

July turned into one of the busiest months of the year, and that's always a good sign for best games. Though there weren't a lot of bizarre and unique games during this period, the resurgence of terran has seen their numbers grow on the recommended games list. The winner of the month has to be TvZ, with a whopping 6 highly recommended games this month. I guess after 8 months of terran withdrawal, it's nice to finally have them back. That or you guys are just biased. Just sayin'.

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.

RorO vs Rain on King Sejong Station - VOD

Doing Best Games is a time consuming job. I don't just add whatever people recommend; I actually rewatch every single recommended game and use my unquestionable powers of judgment to gauge whether a game deserves a spot or not. Invariably, there are games that I just want to skip because the first 10 minutes bore me to death and I can't imagine things improving. Fortunately, I decided to sit through this one because all it takes for a standard game to tumble into insanity is a little fog of war to press the basetrade button.

Now, we've featured a lot of basetrades on Best Games, but very few become as desperate as this. After a predictable first 12 minutes aside from 34 drone kills--my recap note literally only read "the usual"--Rain sent his entire army to attack the zerg fourth. Fed up with losing his workers, RorO counterattacked with lings, roaches, mutas and corruptors. Both players were reduced to rubble, but RorO appeared to have the upper hand when he wiped out the north of every last protoss trace. A clutch pylon and nexus saved Rain from elimination, while a hatchery was built at the would-be protoss fourth. With what appeared to be a superior army and almost 2k minerals in the bank, Rain moved out to hunt the zerg's remaining buildings. RorO skirted around the army to eliminate what he could find, but Rain simply built more buildings as he trudged towards RorO's last hatchery. Rain was also clever enough to put his probes in the warp prism, and he reached the hatch unopposed. Realizing that his situation was dire with only 2 extractors left (one at his main, one at his fourth), RorO had no choice but to engage the protoss ball which still had 20 stalkers, 3 colossus and a few sentries. To Rain's surprise, his force was slowly being whittled away when he desperately blinked away. A small squad of stalkers was already headed to one extractor before the fight began, and RorO's mutas were too late to save it. Both players were brought down to one structure more than once in the madness, and the entire game would hinge on two: one extractor for RorO in his main and a nexus for Rain in the upper right corner. The SKT T1 ace only had 10 stalkers remaining while RorO had 18 mutas, and it looked like the Samsung Zerg was going to win. But a brilliant warp prism decoy distracted RorO just long enough for Rain to blink into the main, and he was able to take down the extractor with 5 stalkers left.

It was some clever play from Rain to close out a game he looked all but certain to lose, and RorO must have been scratching his head wondering how he was duped by an empty warp prism. It goes to show that I should never judge a game by it's first 10 minutes, especially since there's a fast forward button on youtube anyway.

Maru vs Solar on Merry Go Round - VOD

Once upon a time, the most exciting method of playing TvZ was also the standard: push the zerg with your main army while dropping his outlying bases. Due to zergs becoming more accustomed to taking good engagements in the middle of the map--partly due to better mechanics and partly due to improved creep spread--terrans in HotS were forced to keep their army together in an attempt to break the zerg defenses and push for the win. Sparing units for drops started to fall out of favor in lieu of a stronger direct assault, and for a long time TvZ turned into a bloody tug of war for control of the map.

Ever since the widow mine re-buffs however, we've seen a sea change in the way some terrans approach TvZ. Back are the multi base drops, elevator plays, and early barracks pushes of old, which have breathed life into what was becoming an one dimensional albeit still exciting matchup. We've even seen siege tanks on occasion, a unit that has all but fallen out of our vocabulary in 2014. This game between Maru and Solar encapsulates how dynamic TvZ can be when the terran gets a little more creative than just marines medivacs and mines.

Of course, Maru opened the game with one of the longest surviving builds in SC2, the 2rax. Placing it just outside his third, Maru was set to take advantage of Solar's hatch first. Luckily for the Samsung player, he scouted the right direction first and spied the lack of anything in the terran main. Alarm bells rang and he immediately sent down a drone to patrol the natural ramp. This forced Maru to bunker well out of range of the hatchery, but the climbing marine count still looked perilous. Maru tried to climb the ramp, but a zergling surround appeared enough to rid Solar of the menace. But with excellent micro, the marines survived to reach the shelter of bunker fire before finally being taken out at the cost of a queen and lings. Eventually, Solar was able to destroy the bunker, and they entered the midgame comfortably despite the early game shenanigans.

The Samsung Zerg would learn that Maru's bag of tricks still had much to offer when he executed a sly elevator drop into the zerg main from his frontal third. With hellions on the low ground, Maru was able to stim and kite to his heart's desire, punishing any zergling brave enough to face the flames below. Solar was not to be kept on the back foot however as a baneling runby suddenly exploded at Maru's third, melting 15 SCVs. Realizing his time in the main was done, Maru picked up and dropped the undefended third, stutter stepping behind the minerals. At the same time, the rest of his army was approaching the middle of the map, forcing Solar to morph banelings when he could have been building mutas. With excellent control, the young zerg was able to clean up that force before sending his mutas into the terran main. Solar had taken the high ground 4th base behind it, but the Prince of Marines wasn't going to let Solar have it for free. Another elevator drop ensured its demise, and by the time Solar had sent his units to clean it up, Maru was once again in the main doing damage. Though Solar would be able to win an engagement in the middle once more, the reinforcements proved too much as a drop at his third was once again wreaking havoc. Maru pushed, Solar died, and the obs probably left for a coffee break.

Sure, the game ended as a stomp, but what a glorious stomp it was.

Heart vs Bomber on Overgrowth - VOD

I love throwback builds. Over the course of the game's history, builds have come and gone, but the cycling of standard build orders often relies on metagame shifts rather than their effectiveness or ineffectiveness in many cases. Every once in a while someone goes vintage, and though we may have despised it during its initial use, reruns are often basted in the juiciness of nostalgia. Here, we have proxy marauder with concussive shells.

Unlike many other cheeses, proxy marauder actually requires a lot of micro. Marauders have low DPS against unarmored units, but concussive shells ensure that they survive long enough to take down what they need to pay for themselves. Bomber, known for his hatred of scouting, fortunately decided to open with 1/1/1 instead of cc first. Heart still managed to get 8 worker kills, and he looked far ahead in the early game. Bomber would not sit still for long, however, as he sent out a medivac with 4 marines and 2 widow mines. With no marines of his own, all Heart could do was look wistfully as his marauders tried to follow, and Bomber was able to kill 2 SCVs and a few units for his trouble. Still, Heart now had a second command center and was leaps ahead in workers. Bomber would try a soft contain, but Heart was already inside his base with a drop in the mineral line.

So, what do you do when you're behind in a TvT? Doom drop. The answer is always doom drop. Due to poor vision in his main, Bomber was able to ferry all his units into a dark corner of Heart's base. Sieged where he was protected by the ramp and a banshee, the Red Bull terran shelled Heart's production facilities until the Axiom terran was forced to pull his workers. Both players were finally able to clean up the mess in their mains, and things looked even on two bases.

Thinking that imitation is the best form of flattening, Heart curiously attempted the exact same thing Bomber did, except the latter was more than ready for Heart's copy cat moves. He had a new one up his sleeve, however, as he sieged the natural mineral line from Bomber's third. It looked like a game breaking move for Heart, but Bomber's excellent micro saved the day as he dropped and picked up tanks to eliminate the siege line from across the narrow ravine. With only one tank left, Heart's forces were cleaned up, but he had another army streaming in from the left path. Bomber on the other hand was busy chasing marines on the right, and you should know by now how these games end: a base trade.

Both players retreated into their respective mains, but Bomber had enough tanks to break Heart's ramp. On the other side of the map, the newly christened Bruce Willis terran was unable to do anything more than stop the natural from mining. In desperation, Heart picked everything up in his medivacs to try and salvage things at home, and he dropped with abandon on Bomber's assault force. Though he was able to save his main, he had but 1 SCV left by the end of it. Heart gathered his troops for one final ill fated charge, but at half Bomber's supply, he was forced to wave the white flag as everything he had exploded.

Not bad for a proxy marauder game.

TRUE vs MyuNgSiK on Overgrowth - VOD

If you've ever seen me play (the 20 odd people who watched LRSL, I'm looking at you), you'll know that I'm not exactly the most conventional zerg. Despite being considered the most inflexible race in terms of openings and early game strategies, once in a while a stylistic player appears and makes everyone fall in love with him. There was Freaky and his love of infestors, YugiOh the fallen King of Code A, and now we have TRUE, the new lord of banelings.

This game however, looked like something I'd try against Olli. After a curious pp, perhaps to plan his devious maneuvers or to sense his opponent's frailty, TRUE sent out a drone at 10 supply. It was an oddly early drone scout for a two player map, and while it's a safe time to send one out, it usually never sees much anyway. After taking a peek in the main while being hounded by a probe, TRUE sent it back to the natural to attempt a delay on the nexus. With two probes chasing the drone it looked like the annoyance would not last, and the KT protoss had a probe as an obstruction on the other side of the map. But a split second of overconfidence gave TRUE an opening, and the hatchery was made. In MyuNgSiK's natural.

Determined to build his nexus, MyuNgSiK pulled 10 workers to try and zap the building hatchery, but he was forced to go forge first to make the most of his mineral surplus. Of course, it would not end there as TRUE followed it up with a cancel and evo chamber, and the probes continued to taser away at its pulsating flesh. Finally, he was able to get the cancel, and he sent his probes back to mine. This turned out to be a horrible idea as TRUE simply remade the hatchery, forcing the protoss to send his workers back down. When KT's befuddled player was finally able to place his nexus, you could feel the sigh of relief escaping his lips. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to escape even more silliness from TRUE. He neglected to keep tabs on the drone, which decided to place another hatchery. Inside MyuNgSiK's main.

He'd not know about TRUE's third hatchery until it was complete, and only a mothership core and nexus cannon saved him from immediate defeat. By this time, MyuNgSiK was tilting like a sack of bricks on a seesaw as he twice clicked a handful of probes to follow another probe instead of mining. All that TRUE had to do from there was tech up to mutas on five bases, and euthanize MyuNgSiK from one of the most embarrassing games of the year. Only recommended if you want a good laugh, and I didn't even add it to the main list. :p

Full List of July 2014 Games

July

July 1: SPL Round 4
Trap vs sOs - VOD

July 1: SPL Round 4
RorO vs Rain - VOD

July 2: WCS AM Ro16
Bomber vs TooDming - VOD

July 2: WCS AM Ro16
Polt vs Check - VOD

July 3: WCS AM Ro16
MajOr vs viOLet - VOD

July 6: SPL Round 4
Maru vs Solar - VOD

July 6: WCS AM Ro4
Heart vs Bomber - VOD

July 13: RBBG Atlanta
Polt vs Suppy - VOD

July 20: IEM Shenzhen
TaeJa vs Solar - VOD

July 22: SPL R4 Playoffs
Rain vs Bbyong - VOD

July 27: SPL R4 Playoffs
sOs vs Zest - VOD

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Grand List Compiler: lichter.
Photos: ESL