The first Legacy of the Void Premier tournament surely proved the enormous entertainment potential of this new expansion, burning of a firework of excellent games from both Koreans and Foreigners. Even though the group stage was fairly predictable regarding the advancements (our competitor compendium picked eleven out of twelve players correctly) the exact group orders were a surprise with Foreigners claiming two first places over their Korean opponents.
The playoffs went on to become a hot affair, providing several great games and above all an abundant amount of study material for fans and progamers alike. Much can be learnt from the plays of this tournament, setting the pace for the next few weeks of LotV competition.
Here’s what we took away from the tournament in Jönköping.
Solar Reigns Supreme
Widely regarded as the favourite to win this DreamHack beforehand, Solar proved his terrifying reputation with a commanding performance throughout the tournament. The zerg didn’t drop a single map in the group stage and then advanced into the grand finals only losing one sole game to his greatest rival for the championship—PartinG.
Only in the last and deciding series, where he once again was met in battle by the protoss player, Solar was pushed to the edge of defeat. However PartinG wasn’t able to finish the series off after taking a 3-1 lead, allowing Solar to perform a comeback and take his third DreamHack title, putting the Samsung player only two trophies behind top dog TaeJa. History repeated itself this day, as both players already were in a similar position last year at MSI in Taiwan.
Thus Solar continues to reign supreme. Since the release of the expansion the zerg player is undefeated, having won 26 series and 70 maps, only dropping the ball and losing maps 16 times—this equals a winrate of 81%.
PartinG's history of struggling in grand finals continued at DreamHack Winter 2015. Photo: Benjamin Cotton, dreamhack flickr
Different Foreigners Lead the Charge
A great deal of people had expected HuK and Lilbow to do well at DreamHack, but it was a different group of Foreigners that lead the charge in Sweden. Although Lilbow was able to win a series against TY he wasn’t able to advance out of his group—Nerchio, puCK and FireCake on the other hand were not only able to overcome Korean opposition, but also got into the playoffs. There it was ShoWTimE, who at least challenged PartinG’s PvP skills, making things difficult for the Flash Wolves player, giving Europe a great showing once more.
Overall things didn’t look all too great on the Foreigner vs Koreans front however. Despite being in a new, unexplored expansion—a phase in which Foreigners traditionally are more likely to upset Koreans than in a figured out meta—the stats don’t exactly give reason to feel more hopeful than before: In the duels against Westerners the Koreans won 45 maps while losing only 12.
The strong American hope of DreamHack Winter 2015: puCK. Photo: Sebastian Ekman, dreamhack flickr
Michael Bay's Protoss vs Protoss
What to make of the protoss mirror match-up after this tournament? PartinG and ShoWTimE showcased a style relying heavily on the usage disruptors, which led to both sides dancing around each other, shooting and dodging the explosive payload of the robotic units—and sometimes failing to get away, resulting in giant losses of supply.
What looked like a case of MAD (‘Mutual Assured Destruction’, a strategic concept revolving around nuclear retaliation during the Cold War), was amazing to spectate for most viewers: It was intense, dramatic and flashy. It had a lot of close calls, last second blinks and dodges and most of all giant explosions with carnage flying all around the place. It required the players to pay attention without any little break whatsoever—if you look away for one second there may not be an army for you to command anymore. Patience and great control are a must-have for this style as well—and all of it visible to the spectator, since a small deficit in any of these areas lead to destruction. It seems like this kind of PvP is the ultimate result of David Kims “spectators first” philosophy implemented with LotV.
Viewers may grow tired of this deadly dancing after some time, but for now the majority seems satisfied with that kind of play. What about the players though? Everything said above—that you need to pay attention 100% of your time, that you need patience as well as precise, fast control and that everything can be over after one disruption—may be amazing to watch, but incredibly difficult to pull off on the field of battle. Losing a long game in this meta may feel very frustrating and draining. We’ll have to see how long players are willing to invest so much energy before searching for different ways to win.
ShoWTimE performed one of the most impressive runs in Jönköping, even challenging PartinG in PvP. Photo: Benjamin Cotton, dreamhack flickr
Recommended Games
There are few games we’d like to recommend you checking out, in case you missed parts of the tournament and are looking for some good VODs: Fans of TvT might want to watch Bomber vs TY for some excellent holds of aggression and other craziness. (Youtube)
Terrans looking for inspiration—and anyone else looking for amazing entertainment—should absolutely watch game 3 and 4 of PartinG vs TY. Game 3 showcased an excellent macro battle between the two players, while game 4 was just outright crazy and intense. (Youtube)
If you’d like to see what this new PvP is all about, check out PartinG vs ShoWTimE (game 3 especially) and be ready to watch some explosions—protoss haters might also enjoy this, since a lot of the stuff you hate is exploding and flying all over the screen. (Youtube)
And last but not least the grand finals between PartinG and Solar produced a great game 4, showing protoss players a way to deal with the swarm. (Youtube) If you are struggling against zerg and need some additional ideas you might also want to follow ShoWTimE’s run through the tournament—he murdered three of Europe’s finest zergs on his way.
DreamHack might be done, but more Legacy of the Void craziness is soon to come with Nation Wars 3 and the next edition of HomeStory Cup. For players and viewers alike this means only one thing: There is more terra incognita to be explored and showcased, as this new world opens itself up to us.
Lots of really good games, though it remains to be seen how the game will look once more builds, timings, etc. are figured out and refined and standard playstyles emerge.
On November 30 2015 05:43 TimeSpiral wrote: UGH! Is that a gigantic spoiler in the thread title?!
I do not get this attitude towards "spoilers" in titles. Every time, there is tenis grand slam, Tour De France or any other major sports event, you can see the outcome almost anywhere, on news stands, on regular news portals, in your Facebook feed. And now, after the first major event in LotV you go to TL.net and "UGHing" about the result in title? It is the same, like to log in to the tennis.com and than to be angry about the fact, that there is title that states, that GB have won Davis Cup.
On November 30 2015 05:43 TimeSpiral wrote: UGH! Is that a gigantic spoiler in the thread title?!
I do not get this attitude towards "spoilers" in titles. Every time, there is tenis grand slam, Tour De France or any other major sports event, you can see the outcome almost anywhere, on news stands, on regular news portals, in your Facebook feed. And now, after the first major event in LotV you go to TL.net and "UGHing" about the result in title? It is the same, like to log in to the tennis.com and than to be angry about the fact, that there is title that states, that GB have won Davis Cup.
I know, I know ...
I suppose I was expecting a tiny bit of insulation from spoilers here, since people are typically pretty good with spoiler tags, and what not. Frankly, I just wasn't thinking, and it disappointed me to see a spoiler in a forum title (home page, news article, sure). Certainly you understand the disappointment of a spoiler when you weren't expecting it. Not that Zerg winning was much of a spoiler ...
Incidentally, I watch Tennis. Another international sport largely viewed on DVRs (VoDs) and I'm a little bit critical of the rampant spoilers. A news site, sure. Just sucks to have to essentially unplug from the Internet if you can't watch sports that are "live" in a different country, sometimes on the other side of the world.
Awesome write u for a great tournament. One thing that sucks is that I have no idea when the next big thing is. Hopefully people will announce their 2016 plans soon.
BW fans are still clamoring for more gosu reavers, so I suspect to disruptors will last, especially if they prove too dominant and get nerfed a bit (but not too much).
Solar won the championship but there are no pictures of Solar? Is there another recap coming out specifically dedicated just for Solar or are we just screwing Solar over?
Right up to the finals, I thought this was going to be the most onesided tournament I've seen in a long, long time. Usually Dreamhack has a few big name Koreans who all have a shot at winning, but I'm not sure I can remember favoring a player has heavily as Solar, and then he delivered. That is, until the finals, where Parting actually took it to game 7. It's a shame how he chose to play out the last two games though I think. I don't know if he overestimated his builds or just wanted an easy win, but those were clearly not effective cheeses.
And thanks to TY and PartinG for giving us the best series of the tournament. Too bad TY didn't get much reward for his trouble.
On November 30 2015 05:37 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: It seems like this kind of PvP is the ultimate result of David Kims “spectators first” philosophy implemented with LotV.
Viewers may grow tired of this deadly dancing after some time, but for now the majority seems satisfied with that kind of play. What about the players though? Everything said above—that you need to pay attention 100% of your time, that you need patience as well as precise, fast control and that everything can be over after one disruption—may be amazing to watch, but incredibly difficult to pull off on the field of battle. Losing a long game in this meta may feel very frustrating and draining. We’ll have to see how long players are willing to invest so much energy before searching for different ways to win.
What a strange thought process.
Why don't we go talk to Flash, MVP, Taeja, and Maru about David Kim's "new" philosophy of units requiring non-stop babysitting throughout a match. I'm sure their wrists will have something to say.
I came back to watch some of these games after several years of being away from the game and I really enjoyed what I saw. Took me a few games to get used to some of the new units, but overall it was really fun to watch. Disrupters reminded me a lot of reavers with scarabs that you can micro which certainly made for some exciting moments. I might see if I can get back into following the game, that was such a treat.
On November 30 2015 05:37 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: It seems like this kind of PvP is the ultimate result of David Kims “spectators first” philosophy implemented with LotV.
Viewers may grow tired of this deadly dancing after some time, but for now the majority seems satisfied with that kind of play. What about the players though? Everything said above—that you need to pay attention 100% of your time, that you need patience as well as precise, fast control and that everything can be over after one disruption—may be amazing to watch, but incredibly difficult to pull off on the field of battle. Losing a long game in this meta may feel very frustrating and draining. We’ll have to see how long players are willing to invest so much energy before searching for different ways to win.
What a strange thought process.
Why don't we go talk to Flash, MVP, Taeja, and Maru about David Kim's "new" philosophy of units requiring non-stop babysitting throughout a match. I'm sure their wrists will have something to say.
Congrats to Solar, was rooting for him happy to see him win.
But omfg yes, I was wondering why my wrists felt so strained after a few games nowadays, when I could play 20+ games before with ease. It's (probably) because of LotV, I'm only a few months older than when I was just playing HotS.
Can we please stop spoilering winners of major leagues on the front page of TL? There are other ways to announce the news so it is one click away from being spoiled instead of being so in your face. Not everyone has the chance to be able to see the tournaments live...
On November 30 2015 16:15 FusionCutter wrote: Can we please stop spoilering winners of major leagues on the front page of TL? There are other ways to announce the news so it is one click away from being spoiled instead of being so in your face. Not everyone has the chance to be able to see the tournaments live...
On November 30 2015 09:21 Seeker wrote: Solar won the championship but there are no pictures of Solar? Is there another recap coming out specifically dedicated just for Solar or are we just screwing Solar over?
Well, Solar is on the front page with his trophy, so we didn't forget about him or anything! :D
I really hope what we saw in PvP (parting vs showtime) isnt going to be the new meta. it was the same exact thing for 20 minutes. stalkers and a handful of disruptors vs stalkers, disruptors and 5 tempests. the article says it was intense, dramatic and flashy.... if every pvp turns out like this because nothing else would beat the stalker/disruptor combo then we are looking at a really boring mirror matchup for the rest of the game.
anybody else thought "their dance" was rather boring after a while?
On November 30 2015 19:04 trada wrote: I really hope what we saw in PvP (parting vs showtime) isnt going to be the new meta. it was the same exact thing for 20 minutes. stalkers and a handful of disruptors vs stalkers, disruptors and 5 tempests. the article says it was intense, dramatic and flashy.... if every pvp turns out like this because nothing else would beat the stalker/disruptor combo then we are looking at a really boring mirror matchup for the rest of the game.
anybody else thought "their dance" was rather boring after a while?
That's why I said people might get tired of it sooner or later - some people already are tired of it of course. It's certainly a matter of taste and I can very much understand both sides in this discussion. I am torn myself on the subject.
i think a certain player *coughs coughs* learned that giving up on the biggest tournament of the year to practice for dreamhack doesn't guarantee success.
On November 30 2015 20:33 Kaizor wrote: i think a certain player *coughs coughs* learned that giving up on the biggest tournament of the year to practice for dreamhack doesn't guarantee success.
On November 30 2015 20:33 Kaizor wrote: i think a certain player *coughs coughs* learned that giving up on the biggest tournament of the year to practice for dreamhack doesn't guarantee success.
Like it would have changed a thing
Well Lilbow should have learned something about PR and not calling TLO a washout caster since TLO kicked him out
On November 30 2015 20:33 Kaizor wrote: i think a certain player *coughs coughs* learned that giving up on the biggest tournament of the year to practice for dreamhack doesn't guarantee success.
Like it would have changed a thing
Well Lilbow should have learned something about PR and not calling TLO a washout caster since TLO kicked him out
Karma
That is pretty funny. You could also argue that avoiding the negative publicity and Twitter wars might have made Lilbow more prepared for DH rather than having a big old distraction when the tournament was actually approaching.
On November 30 2015 16:15 FusionCutter wrote: Can we please stop spoilering winners of major leagues on the front page of TL? There are other ways to announce the news so it is one click away from being spoiled instead of being so in your face. Not everyone has the chance to be able to see the tournaments live...
i almost never watch tournaments live and i don't like being spoiled, but when i know there's a big tournament on i just avoid the front page/general forum thread titles until i get a chance to watch... exactly the same as if you didn't want to know who won a real sports game, you would have to avoid the news and probably your social media if your friends follow sports...
it's like people who scroll down to the comments on a youtube vod and then complain that they got spoiled... like, what? do you have no self control? these are places that literally exist so people can talk about the games, so of course people are going to talk about what happened
I agree that the PvP series was intense and dramatic, and the fact that they kept it like this for 10 minutes does show their excellent micro skills. It's like watching a boxing match where both fighters keeps landing punches but not enough for a K.O.. Not boring if you are rooting for one of the players, but for the neutral viewer it might feel tiresome after a while.
This - https://www.reddit.com/r/SpoilerFreeSC - is what you guys are looking for when you want to watch SC2 without getting spoiled by something on the page that leads you too it.
On November 30 2015 20:33 Kaizor wrote: i think a certain player *coughs coughs* learned that giving up on the biggest tournament of the year to practice for dreamhack doesn't guarantee success.
Like it would have changed a thing
Well Lilbow should have learned something about PR and not calling TLO a washout caster since TLO kicked him out
On November 30 2015 22:37 opisska wrote: This - https://www.reddit.com/r/SpoilerFreeSC - is what you guys are looking for when you want to watch SC2 without getting spoiled by something on the page that leads you too it.
I go to TL for other stuff than watching tournaments
Correct me if Im wrong but TL, first of all is a "progaming news" webpage, isn't it ? Naturally it spoils results of events because that is what news are about. Imagine eurosport, or some other sport news webpages to hide the results. Nobody would look there. For me it is important to know the result without reading the article, and if i want to know details I open Vods.
Btw, nice tournament anyway. I like the freshness of the new expansion, and wonder where the meta will go. However, i'd like to see a bit more of HotS just because the meta was stablised, and we could see very strong, and solid games ( which could be boring for some people ). Hope the meta will be stabilised soon, despited loving to watch how players try to accustom the wildness of the game
On December 01 2015 00:25 achan1058 wrote: Personally, I am rather said that Parting fell apart like that in the finals. He was looking like he was going to win it all after the first 4 games.
Has Parting won a major tournament yet? Nerves seem to have always been his weakness (despite his cocky veneer).
On December 01 2015 00:25 achan1058 wrote: Personally, I am rather said that Parting fell apart like that in the finals. He was looking like he was going to win it all after the first 4 games.
Has Parting won a major tournament yet? Nerves seem to have always been his weakness (despite his cocky veneer).
However PartinG wasn’t able to finish the series off after taking a 3-1 lead, allowing Solar to perform a comeback and take his third DreamHack title, putting the Samsung player only two trophies behind top dog TaeJa.
Taeja won 4 Dreamhack tournaments so this would make Solar one trophy behind TaeJa, not two. 4-3 = 1.
On December 01 2015 00:25 achan1058 wrote: Personally, I am rather said that Parting fell apart like that in the finals. He was looking like he was going to win it all after the first 4 games.
Has Parting won a major tournament yet? Nerves seem to have always been his weakness (despite his cocky veneer).
Ah ok, although I'm always surprised that some of those premier tournaments aren't considered major (guess cuz they have a high prizepool despite tiny participation). But I won't quibble on that.
On November 30 2015 22:37 opisska wrote: This - https://www.reddit.com/r/SpoilerFreeSC - is what you guys are looking for when you want to watch SC2 without getting spoiled by something on the page that leads you too it.
I go to TL for other stuff than watching tournaments
It doesn't matter what you come on TL for. This is a esports news site and team before anything else, it has to stay on top of recent results in a clear fashion (frontpage, like any journal / sports site). You should not come here at all if you expect no being exposed to recent e-sports news.
On November 30 2015 22:37 opisska wrote: This - https://www.reddit.com/r/SpoilerFreeSC - is what you guys are looking for when you want to watch SC2 without getting spoiled by something on the page that leads you too it.
I go to TL for other stuff than watching tournaments
It doesn't matter what you come on TL for. This is a esports news site and team before anything else, it has to stay on top of recent results in a clear fashion (frontpage, like any journal / sports site). You should not come here at all if you expect no being exposed to recent e-sports news.
Not come here at all. Yeah you are right i'm going to do that.
I think this TL's approach of being "first and foremost a news site" is a bad one. Let's face it, while TL is a nice news site, it's really nothing special in that regard and there are thousands of such site online for each and every insane nonsense people decided to be newsworthy. However as a community forum, TL is pretty unique. The staff need to recognize that and support what's really valuable instead of trying to live their childhood dreams of being a journalist.
Can really see Solar becoming the new Taeja. I feel like Parting still had the best execution out of anyone, but his knowledge of the matchups lacked, which leads me to believe that LotV will be an expansion suited for Parting in due time.
Games were great and really deserved to be played on a big arena as usual in DH:Winter events. I still think it was a good idea to do a more foreign style tournament, as I was really hyped for this event, it had many foreigners + huge prize pool. It felt like they wanted to put Starcraft back on the map, but they really didn't mirror this hype in the level of production+caster lineup+getting more crowd sound, we heard more sounds from other games than our own crowd.
On December 01 2015 19:39 opisska wrote: I think this TL's approach of being "first and foremost a news site" is a bad one. Let's face it, while TL is a nice news site, it's really nothing special in that regard and there are thousands of such site online for each and every insane nonsense people decided to be newsworthy. However as a community forum, TL is pretty unique. The staff need to recognize that and support what's really valuable instead of trying to live their childhood dreams of being a journalist.
If you can list a single important news site for SC2 aside from TL and Reddit which essentially only has reposts of tweets or TL news, I'll be impressed.
On December 01 2015 19:39 opisska wrote: I think this TL's approach of being "first and foremost a news site" is a bad one. Let's face it, while TL is a nice news site, it's really nothing special in that regard and there are thousands of such site online for each and every insane nonsense people decided to be newsworthy. However as a community forum, TL is pretty unique. The staff need to recognize that and support what's really valuable instead of trying to live their childhood dreams of being a journalist.
If you can list a single important news site for SC2 aside from TL and Reddit which essentially only has reposts of tweets or TL news, I'll be impressed.
i never said that. i meant that tl is just a "news site for X" and there really isn't that much special in it, because that's what half of the internet is. the community aspect of the site seems more important to me. it is also worth noting that the whole existence of the news is because of the community from which the writers come in the first place.
On December 01 2015 19:39 opisska wrote: I think this TL's approach of being "first and foremost a news site" is a bad one. Let's face it, while TL is a nice news site, it's really nothing special in that regard and there are thousands of such site online for each and every insane nonsense people decided to be newsworthy. However as a community forum, TL is pretty unique. The staff need to recognize that and support what's really valuable instead of trying to live their childhood dreams of being a journalist.
If you can list a single important news site for SC2 aside from TL and Reddit which essentially only has reposts of tweets or TL news, I'll be impressed.
i never said that. i meant that tl is just a "news site for X" and there really isn't that much special in it, because that's what half of the internet is. the community aspect of the site seems more important to me. it is also worth noting that the whole existence of the news is because of the community from which the writers come in the first place.
If you wanna see it that way, sure. But you also can't ignore the fact that there is no news site for SC2 aside from TL. So the whole "there are a million news websites about X" argument doesn't apply here. There actually isn't a single one of these websites that covers SC2. Of course we're aware that TL combines a lot of different website features in one, and we'll try to balance them as well as possible, but we have always had news coverage on TL about the biggest events, and that at times includes tournament results.
On December 01 2015 19:39 opisska wrote: I think this TL's approach of being "first and foremost a news site" is a bad one. Let's face it, while TL is a nice news site, it's really nothing special in that regard and there are thousands of such site online for each and every insane nonsense people decided to be newsworthy. However as a community forum, TL is pretty unique. The staff need to recognize that and support what's really valuable instead of trying to live their childhood dreams of being a journalist.
If you can list a single important news site for SC2 aside from TL and Reddit which essentially only has reposts of tweets or TL news, I'll be impressed.
i never said that. i meant that tl is just a "news site for X" and there really isn't that much special in it, because that's what half of the internet is. the community aspect of the site seems more important to me. it is also worth noting that the whole existence of the news is because of the community from which the writers come in the first place.
If you wanna see it that way, sure. But you also can't ignore the fact that there is no news site for SC2 aside from TL. SO the whole "there are a million news websites about X" argument doesn't apply here. There actually isn't a single one of these websites that covers SC2. Of course we're aware that TL combines a lot of different website features in one, and we'll try to balance them as well as possible, but we have always had news coverage on TL about the biggest events, and that at times includes tournament results.
... and you had that for several years alongside the "hide spoilers" feature, which you inexplicably removed.
all that i am saying is that tl should think about its priorities. i personally dont care about neither spoilers nor news - if i missed a tourney, i usually just go check the result on liquipedia right away nowadays. but i know that a lot of fine passionate guys do care and i consider many of those to be part of what makes tl what it is.
EPT
Solar proved his terrifying reputation with a commanding performance throughout the tournament. The zerg didn’t drop a single map in the group stage and then advanced into the grand finals only losing one sole game to his greatest rival for the championship—
PartinG. 
TaeJa. History repeated itself this day, as both players already were in a similar position last year at MSI in Taiwan.![[image loading]](/staff/TheOneAboveU/Players/DHW15_PartinG_BenjaminCotton.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/TheOneAboveU/Players/DHW15_puCK_SebastianEkman.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/TheOneAboveU/Players/DHW15_ShoWTimE_BenjaminCotto.jpg)
