The Best Games of August 2014

by lichter

Every month it feels like starting my research for Best Games is going to be a chore, but whenever I'm already into it, I realize that each month just wouldn't be complete without me rewatching all the most highly recommended games. In a scene where there's a lot of doom and gloom, watching 20 to 30 straight great games fills up the passion tank quicker than an Artosis fart joke. August was no exception, with the return of Premier League, Code S, and IEM Toronto. Feeling like SC2 is going in the wrong direction? Well here's Best Games to change your mind once again.

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 TaeJa on KTV Foxtrot Labs - VOD

We've covered a couple of comebacks here on Best Games, but it's not a type of game that we get to feature every month. The game of Starcraft is one of momentum, and it's difficult to claw back into a game once a decisive blow or supply disadvantage has been dealt. But when they do happen, they are just that much more memorable. Who will ever forget Heart vs XiGua from our June installment? The Axiom Terran reclaimed inch after inch with his jaw dropping micro, until he was able to turn the tide and declare victory.

This game between TaeJa and Zest was a different beast. Though Taeja is also renowned for his control, he simply out-thought Zest in dire circumstances. The KT protoss is no slouch, as he has had his fair share of crazy games, but his every move seemed the wrong one while Taeja took advantage of every opportunity.

The game appeared like it would be a normal one when Taeja opened with a reaper expand against Zest's gateway expand. The series was tied at 1 apiece and it looked like both players were content in playing safe; the protoss warped in a robo and the terran raised the scaffolds for two more raxes. Then, almost as if it was agreed upon before the match, they both decided to change things up. Taeja began concussive shells and Zest decided to get an immortal before an observer, and brows were raised as to what they were planning to do. Taeja began moving out with his marine marauder platoon, but 5 gateways were already on the way in a corner of the protoss main. Luckily for the Liquid Terran, his reaper was still alive and diligently scouting, and he was able to spot the gateways just as they were about to finish. Taeja used his vanguard to try and pick off whatever he could, but the immortal bust was coming and he was pushed back to defend. With 3 bunkers it looked like he was safe, but his platoon decided to try and counterattack. A warp-in of zealots sliced them to bits, and Zest knocked on Taeja's front door until he was making a mess of the living room. The King of Summer tried valiantly to hold, but he was repeatedly forced back into his main. The Player Formerly Known as P7GAB pressed with his attack and climbed the ramp, and Taeja knew there was no way he was holding. He picked up three medivacs full of units and boosted to the other side of the map, and pulled all of his workers and remaining units. He dropped on top of Zest's production to take out the important pylons, and it was enough of a distraction to allow a few SCVs and his 2 CCs to escape. Zest's probes had already fled before the drop even began, and a base trade ensued.

By the end of it, the Liquid Terran had 3 medivacs worth of units, 2 CCs and a handful of SCVs. Zest had a massive army, 30+ probes, but had to resettle and rebuild. Unfortunately, Zest decided to move into the wrong neighborhood. Choosing the quickest possible solution, Zest placed his nexus in Taeja's natural. This is usually an acceptable response to base trades especially since it occurred so early, but the architecture of Foxtrot came back to bite him. Taeja floated one cc to the lower right corner of the map, and the other to the 9.5 o'clock base. The Liquid Terran wasn't done spreading himself out; he placed his first two raxes and depots in the 3 o'clock position. While Zest's army was still superior, Taeja's mobility and spread out infrastructure ensured that the KT protoss could not move out. He was forced to sit in his base and rebuild his tech on one base while Taeja was mining off two. Still with a weaker army, Taeja found another chance to gain an edge: he dropped into his own main and camped the mineral line from the ledge. With no air units, observer or colossus, Zest had no high ground vision. The tiny ramp up the main was too perilous a stair to climb, and Zest had to wait for his mothership core before he could mine efficiently. He did try to harass the terran bases with zealots, but by the time they arrived Taeja was already finishing the framework of his comeback. Zest desperately tried to get colossus out in time, but the terran's full production was already in high gear. Even after such a seesawing game, the Liquid Terran still hit his timing perfectly just before the first colossus was able to pop from the robo, and there was nothing Zest could do to stop Taeja's 2-laned assault.

It was a perfect ending to the game as Zest's last stand was in the exact same spot where Taeja seemed all but doomed just 10 minutes earlier. Lesson learned little protoss: never move into the apartment of the dude you just tried to kill.

Cure vs Zest on King Sejong Station - VOD

While we often cover really close games here in this article series, games don't necessarily have to be close to be enjoyable. Sometimes, a systematic dismantling can be just as delicious, especially when it coincides with the moment a role player finally comes good. On King Sejong Station, Cure finally came good.

While protoss have had trouble in PvT during the month of August, Zest debuted a build that was designed to keep him safe from harassment until he was able to reach his desired tech. His blink before robo build has become one of the go-to safe openings for protoss, and he used it almost exclusively to reach the finals of IEM Toronto. The terrans he demolished should have watched his GSL just a few days earlier, as Cure displayed just how to tear apart even the most conservative of builds.

The early game was close to uneventful as both players were content to stick with their plans. It wasn't until 9 and a half minutes until Cure moved out with a small bio force and 2 medivacs, but Zest was already warping in a third base at the time. With blink stalkers already patrolling the area, Cure could not find a way in to do damage. His production at home continued to churn out units at the cost of a late third base, but Cure was determined to make Zest bleed. The Jin Air Terran knocked on Zest's back door and the rocks slowly crumbled, but excellent forcefields and 2 colossus kept Cure at bay. Zest was already close to finishing his templar archives and zealot charge when Cure's third base was only beginning, and the Jin Air Terran had to find a way to stop Zest's economy.

So he decided to drop most of his army on top of 11 stalkers waiting in the main. Normally, this sounds like a terrible idea. Actually, it is a terrible idea. It definitely looked like a terrible idea. But Cure somehow made it work. Emptier medivacs absorbed most of the stalker fire, and he brilliantly dropped widow mines on the cliff below to act as support artillery. Even with all his anti air Zest could not stop the drop, and Cure gunned down units as they filed into the main. At the same time, Cure was down in the protoss third with a few units, and the terran torture rack began.

Cure attacked the natural. Then dropped in the main. Then ran into the third. Zest tried his best to hold, but his attention was stretched to its limits. The incorporation of widow mines into drops proved clever once more when Zest neglected to send an observer. The result was 16 probe kills and a protoss at wit's end. Deciding that he had had enough, Zest moved out with all of his units to try and deal one decisive fatal blow. His cuts back at home were trickling, but with units all over the map, it looked like Cure was unprepared to block Zest's flurry of haymakers. With an inferior army, all Cure could do was spread and hope for the best. So he spread. And spread. And Zest's haymakers hit nothing. With incredible control and a 120 degree surround, Cure shattered Zest's last hope of gaining an advantage. The KT protoss tried in vain to rebuild his forces, but the cuts were now sores and the Jin Air Terran smelled blood. His marauders chuckled in the face of stalker fire, and the season 1 champion gg'd.

Even in a year of protoss domination, Cure showed that everyone has a weakness. In Season 3, the potential royal roader just might be it.

Life vs First on Deadwing - VOD

If you were the last person on earht, what would you do? I'd probably fill a bathtub with pistacchio ice cream, wear a jacket made of babies, and watch all of Mvp's title runs on a 1000inch TV. And then end it all by drowning myself in the ice cream bathtub.

Unfortunately, if you were the last drone on the map, you'd probably still be mining. Or hiding from a voidray and 5 useless carriers. This, my friends, is the story of how one drone made a difference.

It was the quarterfinals of IEM Toronto between Life and First. The cheeky zerg opened with a 14/14, a strategy in vogue once again among pros and bronzies. First built his forge before his nexus, though, and the game normalized. Just as he is wont to do, the TCM protoss decided to go the path of the stargate, but Life and his insufferable lings squeezed through the cracks to spot the oracle building. In response, First attempted to take a quick third base and defend it from zerglings with his oracle, but the flood eventually forced him to cancel. His plans thwarted and knowing that it was not long until Life attacked again, First began queuing up void rays while repeatedly trying, and failing, to take his third. In the meantime, Life was morphing his infestation pit and a fourth base as he happily macro'd without threat. Still, First was somehow ahead in supply as he amassed his voidrays and sentries, but in the mucky depths of Life's base, a nydus was throbbing. Life was biding his time as his infestors and queens were building, and First managed to strike back with a hatchery kill.

Then, of all things, he built a fleet beacon just as the nydus was tunneling across the map. The roaches, queens, and infestors appeared on the protoss front door but First was still miles away trying to do damage. With haphazard yet sufficient forcefields the TCM protoss stemmed the tide with lasers beaming down from the heavens. Their first engagement a draw, both players transitioned into their late games of choice. For Life, it was ultralisks. For First, it was carriers.

Their forces swelled again, and another nydus burrowed its bowels through the ground. Life attacked with 8 ultralisks, infestors and a horde of queens, but this time the victor was unmistakeable: The hail of interceptor fire shred everything on the ground, and First cleared 70 zerg supply at the cost of 20. Desperately, Life made the muta switch, and the predictable base trade ensued. By the end of it all, both players were ravaged beyond recognition, but Life still had a base in the 9 o'clock position freshly built. He had a handful of zerglings, a small squad of mutalisks, and 36 odd drones along with his bank. First, on the other hand, was bankrupt with probes falling left and right. In his army were 2 zealots, 2 phoenixes, 5 voidrays, and 5 carriers, and there was no way for the zerg to beat that. So, instead, he built 18 spore crawlers. As the mutas tried to do whatever they could, two phoenixes poked them to death from afar. Life was down to only drones, 1 hatchery, and infinity spores, but he was mining. First had the army, and it seemed more than enough to win the game.

Then, he realized he only had 9 interceptors and no cash.

With his entire airforce effectively obsolete with bankruptcy, the entire game hinged on 2 zealots against 16 drones. What followed was 5 minutes of microing back and forth, drones attempting to mine as zealots hacked at them little by little while avoiding the surround. But a moment of impatience from First allowed one zealot to get trapped in a cul de sac, and he was a goner. The voidrays attempted to help, but the spore crawlers covered just about every angle. The lonely zealot continued to slice away, but he too found himself alone in a dark alley only to be surrounded by the 5 remaining drones. The voidrays did all they could to save him, but the wounds were fatal. One drone escaped with his life as all but one voidray fell from the skies, yet there was no place for him to mine. The voidray trapped him in his cage of spores, but he survived as the two players agreed to the draw.

The last drone on Deadwing.*

*Until the overmind decides he should be an extractor or something

TRUE vs Dear on Overgrowth - VOD

So, you're a professional Starcraft 2 player and you're facing TRUE in the Ro32 of Code S. Since it's a best of 3, you decide to throw in a cheese in there to maybe get a cheap win, because hey it's TRUE the game's bound to be stupid anyway. So you teabag (proxy 2gate) outside his natural and start queuing zealots to mess him up.

Then you spot a drone scouting your main.



If you answered B or C, you're probably Has. If you answered D, then you're Dear. If you answered E, then congratulations! You're not Dear and you probably reached the Ro16.

After failing to do damage other than forcing lings and a late expansion from TRUE, Dear's first mistake was letting lings slip by his zealot wall to cause trouble his main. His second mistake was losing track of of TRUE's drone. His third mistake was allowing 6 probes to die to slow lings. His fourth mistake was following the old adage "when behind, dark shrine" in the most predictable circumstances possible. His fifth mistake was not gging 5 minutes earlier.

Out of all the superlatives we hand out to progamers, one of the most tenuous is when we call someone well prepared or good at planning. We don't actually know (ie. stalk their team house and peep into the practice room) that they prepare, it just seems that way from their games. Dear, never known for his mechanics or overall gameplay, won both his titles by preparing for his opponents and doing just enough to win. You'd think that someone with his reputation would know that TRUE loves playing against cheese and weird openings, and that he always counters protoss shenanigans with proxy hatcheries. It's not even a surprise at this point; everyone in the LR thread would have scouted for it. Whether Dear has never faced TRUE on ladder or decided not to review his VODs, we'll never know, but it looks like none of the zergs on Samsung decided to tell him.

Or maybe he should have read last month's article. This is why you suck now, Dear.

Full List of August 2014 Games

August

August 7: Code S Ro32
INnoVation vs MyuNgSiK - VOD

August 7: Code S Ro32
Cure vs ParalyzE - VOD

August 9: Taiwan Open
Sen vs HyuN - VOD

August 9: Red Bull BG Global
Polt vs DongRaeGu - VOD

August 10: Red Bull BG Global
Impact vs MMA - VOD

August 10: Red Bull BG Global
Polt vs MMA - VOD

August 13: Code S Ro32
Stats vs Bbyong - VOD

August 20: Code S Ro32
TRUE vs Dear - VOD

August 24: WCS EU Ro32
YoDa vs MMA - VOD

August 27: Code S Ro16
Cure vs Zest - VOD

August 27: Code S Ro16
Zest vs Soulkey - VOD

August 29: IEM Toronto
Zest vs TaeJa - VOD

August 29: IEM Toronto
Flash vs MC - VOD

August 30: IEM Toronto
Life vs First - VOD

August 31: IEM Toronto
Flash vs TaeJa - VOD

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Grand List Compiler: lichter.
Photos: ESL