When TakeTV decided upon Tropical Islands—one of the larger indoor water parks in the world—as the location for HomeStory Cup XX, you can be damn sure they were looking for a way to one-up PartinG's pool dive from HSC X in 2014.

What we ended up with was one of the most whimsically enjoyable post-finals sequences in SC2 history, with Serral 'diving' into the big pool with his trophy before being followed by a throng of fans. While we're lauding TakeTV for ending their tournament on such a high note, the pope of plainness does deserve some credit as well. Serral stepped into the water in such a dainty and disinterested manner, it added an element of unintentional comedy that made the moment all the better.

Written by: Wax

For the 2018 edition of the awards, we opted NOT to give this award to the obvious pick of 'Serral vs Korea,' but instead bequeathed it to their respective fans who bickered throughout the year. A core reason for this was Serral's unwillingness to engage—it's hard to have a rivalry when neither side seems to be taking it seriously.

This year, Serral finally met someone worthy of his attention in Reynor. A hotly contested WCS Winter: EU finals saw Reynor end Serral's undefeated streak on the Circuit events, leading to some rather uncharacteristic behavior from Serral at the following WCS Spring event. In Serral's winner interview after the Spring quarterfinals, he admitted that rather than an easier match-up against goblin, he'd rather face Reynor in a revenge bout. He even went as far as to say his WCS Winter loss to Reynor stung more than his loss to INnoVation at WESG, despite the nearly $100,000 prize money difference in the two finals.

The two traded blows throughout 2019, and Serral seemed to revert to his usual, stoic nature rather than fan the flames of the rivalry. But it became increasingly clear that Reynor was a worthy foe—he defeated Serral in the finals of WCS Summer, which in turn drove Serral to repay the favor at WCS Fall.

That brings us to the WCS Global Finals round-of-four, which was their most important meeting yet. With a finals ticket hanging in the balance, we got the most unexpected result of all: Serral was un-clutch. In the deciding game five, Serral made one of the year's most notable blunders with a confusing late-game swap to Ultralisks, slowly bleeding away what seemed like an insurmountable lead. For Reynor, it was payback for the equally unlikely comeback he gave up to Serral at WCS Montreal in 2018.

Still, the score remains far from settled. Serral has since fought back with victories at HomeStory Cup and NationWars, suggesting that these two will continue to dance well into 2020. It's a rare rivalry at the top of StarCraft II, one where it seems like any result is possible.

Written by: Soularion

"Nydus Worms have been used historically for all-in strategies. We want to encourage more late game usage as a transport/harass tool."

Blizzard—September 11th, 2018.

The post-BlizzCon design patches are meant to take underutilized or uninteresting units and spice them up, adding a fresh, new element to the game. In the case of Nydus Worms, one might say Blizzard did their job a little too well.

During the first third of 2019, when the biggest topic of balance was Protoss all-ins, we still saw hints of how Nydus + Swarm Host might start to run rampant. Slowly but surely, Zergs began to leverage the power of Nydus Worms in various situations, from executing garden variety all-ins to opening up unending Swarm Host portals in the mid-game.

Rogue, the 'honest Zerg' who admitted to Zerg's OP-ness after winning Code S, might be the player who demonstrated Nydus power the best. He barely used BL-Infestor at all in his championship run, as most of his play revolved around getting quick wins with Nydus Worm all-ins or wearing his opponents down with Nydus-Swarm Host in the mid-game. When he did get to the late game against Trap in the Code S finals, he actually used the odd combination of Nydus + Infestors to break Trap's defenses with mass Infested Terrans. Brood Lord-Infestor—as memed and reviled as the combo was—felt more like Serral's signature move than THE defining Zerg strategy.

Nydus Worms were also influential in the ZvZ match-up. Long used in various Roach timings, "Nydus your opponent's main and get Lurkers in" became a win condition that Zergs went for more and more as the year went on. It even ended up sealing a handful of games for Dark in the WCS Global Finals.

Nydus Worms might seem like too broad a category to call a strategy, but the degree to which it affected all Zerg games this year makes it deserving of being singled out. Hey, it's netted plenty of victories already this year—what's one more win?

Written by: Wax

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

[Note: "Breakout" player is our less-than-perfect replacement for "Rookie of the year," due to a player's "rookie season" in SC2 being difficult to define.]

TIME is a genuine anomaly within his region. Historically, we've only paid attention to Chinese StarCraft pros when they produced jaw-dropping upsets on home turf, such as iAsonu eliminating two GSL champions at IEM Shanghai or Jim defeating Life and TaeJa at IEM Shenzhen. When Jim—China's closest thing to a consistent, international-level player—made top five at WCS America in 2013, he followed this up by... not making the playoffs of a WCS event ever again.

In 2016, a successful year from TooDming saw him place but 19th in the WCS Circuit Standings. In 2017, iAsonu placed 12th on the back of strong domestic performances, but his poor Circuit Championship showings meant he had no shot at making it to BlizzCon.

In 2018, TIME became the first player from his region to reach the quarterfinals in the modern WCS Circuit system, and then won his match to attain a historic top four finish. In 2019, TIME was unable to match that singular high, but made up for it with consistent strength that saw him reach the top-eight in three Circuit events. He showed tantalizing glimpses of his talent: he gave Neeb his only loss in WCS Winter: Americas and reached the top eight of ASUS ROG Summer while taking Serral to an honorable five games. His reward was a fifth place finish in the WCS Circuit standings, giving China its first Global Finals representative in the modern format.

The next step for TIME is breaking the quarterfinals barrier and becoming a real title contender. He played six quarterfinals sets in premier events over 2019 and lost them all. If he can get past that hump, we could realistically be talking about TIME as the best foreigner Terran this time next year.

Written by: Soularion

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

For the third straight year, Mexico's SpeCial wins our award for best Circuit Terran player.

Each time we hand SpeCial this award, it bears repeating an old history lesson: foreigner Terrans have always lagged behind their Zerg and Protoss peers, and hit such a nadir in 2013 that TL.net decided this category wasn't even worth awarding. While players like Bunny, uThermal, and MarineLorD showed flashes of brilliance in previous years, it was SpeCial—forged in the fires of Korea—who really restored foreign Terran's reputation with his sustained success in Legacy of the Void.

After a slump in the first quarter of 2019, SpeCial was remarkably steady for the rest of the year. He placed 2nd, top eight, and top four in the latter three WCS Circuit events, and even made two consecutive Code S Ro16 appearances. While his preparation did not avail him at the 2019 Global Finals (where he suffered his first Ro16 elimination), he still showed that "SpeCial-with-preparation" is a deadly opponent by 3-0'ing Reynor at GSL vs. The World.

SpeCial's 2019 campaign was highlighted by his run at WCS Spring, where he finally broke his top-four jinx in major tournaments to reach the finals. While his title shot ended in a sweep at the hands of Serral, he still earned the distinction of being the only player to prevent the WCS Circuit from having only Serral vs. Reynor finals (excluding the WCS Winter: AM finals where Europeans could not participate), and being the first Terran finalist in a WCS Circuit championship since Polt in 2016.

What was 'special' about this year was that the competition for this award was closer than it's ever been. TIME made three top eights on the Circuit, finished reasonably at international events, and somehow upset Maru at the Global Finals. HeRoMaRinE also continued to push himself forward as an eventual candidate for this award, and also scored an upset against Classic at the Global Finals. Could Juanito win a fourth consecutive award in 2020? Time (and TIME) will tell.

Written by: Wax and Soularion

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

In a year where Zergs hogged the spotlight, Maru was the Terran representative who achieved the most for his faction. His Code S season 1 championship, by itself, is almost enough to cement him as the winner of this category, with only INnoVation matching him in winning a major title (WESG and the 'semi-major' GPC).

While much has been said about Maru's fourth consecutive Code S championship, it's worth reiterating how mind-boggling a feat it was. The depth of the Korean progamer pool might be shallower than in the past, but the competition at the top is as intense as ever. And yet, Maru's victory felt inevitable for the fourth straight tournament, and this time he crushed a gauntlet of top Protoss players (including Dear on a 20-0 PvT streak) to win the championship.

Aside from Maru, few of Korea's Terran elite managed to accomplish much in Code S. GuMiho and TY were as entertaining as ever in their finals runs in the two GSL Super Tournaments, but couldn't repeat that success in the weightier Code S competition. It didn't necessarily feel like Zerg and Protoss were broken—like the good old days of “blink to win” or “Protoss deathballs are broken”—but Terran players collectively underperformed compared to their reputations.

Unfortunately, Maru lost steam after winning that legendary fourth title. Still, he concluded the year with very good tournament results on the whole, placing 3rd at WESG, reaching the top four of Code S Season 3, and playing as Korea's only Terran representative at the WCS Global Finals (he finished top eight after losing to eventual champion Dark). INnoVation, despite his big WESG payday, was far too uneven in other competitions to be awarded best Terran, evidenced by his failure to qualify for the Global Finals by large point margin.

This 'decent' year for Maru would have been excellent by any other Terran's standards, and it was easy to pick him as the winner of this award for two years running.

Written by: Orlok

Photo: Jussi Jääskeläinen

This award has never felt more closely contested, yet paradoxically, the winner claimed a one-sided victory. It's like a boxing match where the judges have unanimously decided in favor of one of the pugilists, but all of the scorecards read 10-9.

Yes, the winner, obviously, is Serral.

As mentioned in the Rivalry of the Year award above, Serral finally found a worthy WCS Circuit Rival in Reynor. The Italian prodigy was triumphant in WCS Winter: EU and WCS Summer, while Serral won the titles at WCS Spring and Fall. How to break the tie after an even, two to two split? Fortunately, we didn't need to argue for too long about whether or not Reynor's WCS Winter: Europe title was worth less than a 'true' Circuit title (it's not).

The thing is, Serral slightly edged out Reynor in international events. Yes, Reynor reached the finals of BlizzCon and even defeated Serral to get there—that's a big point in his favor. However, that was really his only notable international result in 2019. Up until BlizzCon, Reynor was noticeably poor in international competitions—one of the biggest low-lights being his failure to make it out of the open bracket at IEM Katowice. As for Serral, though he failed to win any of the super-major tournaments with $100k+ first-place prizes, he still won GSL vs. The World, took second place at WESG and ASUS ROG Summer, and added two HomeStory Cup trophies to his total.

It's wild to think that this race could be even closer in 2020-21, with Reynor finally unlocking his abilities on the international stage. We look forward to seeing what happens. But until then, the king stays king.

Written by: Wax

Photo: Bart Oerbekke (via ESL)

Back in 2016, when SSL and Proleague were still things, the young Dark saw his "potential explode," as the Korean expression goes. He reached two SSL finals, won one of them, and placed runner-up at the WCS Global Finals. As BoxeR's hand-picked protege from SlayerS—the only one plucked away to SK Telecom T1—Dark was already a Proleague star. High expectations for the up-and-coming Zerg, however, took a complicated turn. He demonstrated staggering consistency at the top level of StarCraft, enjoying a prime that never seemed to end. On the other hand, his inability to get over the grand finals hump had him pegged as a loser among winners, a kong in the making.

Not settling for mediocrity is what sets high-flyers apart from the ground-bound. A championship title is what separates the wheat from the chaff—a cliche that only a handful of competitors could ever hope to utter with complete sincerity. Believing anything other than a first place finish to be mediocre, however, is what legends are made of. Dark's ascension to legendary status was a process that took seven years since his TV debut in South Korea.

In June, he faced off against Trap for the Code S championship—the unclaimed prize that had been taunting him for years. Dark rose to the occasion, taking down Trap in a 4-2 series and closing that painful chapter of his career (also becoming the first Zerg Code S champion of LotV in the process). The brakes were violently slammed on Dark's momentum when he lost to Elazer in the first round of GSL vs. The World, but in hindsight, that embarrassment seems to have spurred Dark on even further. He placed top four in the following Code S Season, and then dominated his way to the championship in Super Tournament #2—the last tournament before the WCS Global Finals (particularly notable was his finals vs TY, which he made look like a warm-up match by winning in a 4-0 sweep).

For Dark, a BlizzCon was more than just another tournament to conquer. He’d already reached the finals once before, losing to Byun in 2016. Dark struggled in the group stage of the Global Finals (played from AfreecaTV's studios), and was dragged to full, five-game series by both ShoWTimE and soO. But once he reached the playoff stage at BlizzCon—perhaps with the bitter memories of 2016 fueling him—he returned to dominating form. He ripped apart the opposition, sweeping Maru 3-0 in the quarterfinals, taking another sweep against Classic in the semis, and finally crushing Reynor 4-1 in the finals.

By playing at an elite level all year and winning the two of the most prestigious championships in StarCraft (toss the Super Tournament in there as a bonus), Dark was the only choice as best Korean Zerg of the year.

Written by: Ziggy and Wax

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

As Circuit Terrans and Zerg players surged to new heights in 2019, Circuit Protoss players were left to pay the price. They accounted for just two of the Circuit spots at the Global Finals, and attained but a single grand finals appearance in all of 2019's major events.

That honor went to Neeb, whose championship run at WCS Winter: Americas reminded everyone that he was once the Circuit's dominant force, prior to Serral's awakening. In the following three 'standard' WCS events, Neeb went on to achieve two top-four finishes and one top-eight finish (only being eliminated by Serral and SpeCial), which allowed him to comfortably lock down the #3 spot in the Circuit standings behind Serral and Reynor. If we went by WCS Circuit results alone, Neeb would be the runaway winner of this award as ShoWTimE and PtitDrogo only managed a single top-four finish a piece.

But Neeb was quite solid at mixed-region events as well, finishing top eight at IEM Katowice (winning matches against Maru and RagnaroK), and top four at GSL vs. The World (defeating Stats in the quarterfinals). By 2017 standards, those would have been considered very good—if not excellent—results for a foreigner, and this section would have read more like a major celebration than a mere pat on the back. Alas, we have become spoiled in this post-Serral world. It's hard to say that Neeb has become worse since 2017, and even if that's the case, it's not drastically so. Once, he was the player who changed the paradigm for foreigners—now, he's simply been overshadowed by the next wave of revolutionaries.

How's this for a new year's resolution: Even if Neeb doesn't commit to spending three months in Korea to try and reach the Code S top four once more, let's try to better appreciate the fact that the Circuit is home to a true, world-class Protoss player.

Written by: Wax

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

Trap's late bloom—or second bloom if we count his MLG Anaheim title back in 2014—was one of the more surprising happenings of 2019. We've heard of a lot of tales about certain players being a 'practice-bonjwa' since the Brood War days. So many, in fact, that we mostly rolled our eyes when Maru credited Trap as a top Protoss during his 2018 run. In 2019, we finally understood what he had meant.

Trap placed top four, runner-up, and runner-up in the three Code S tournaments of the year, which is an amazing degree of elite-tier consistency. Indeed, before that freak Maru made winning Code S titles seem easy, just making it to back-to-back finals was actually a record of historical note. It's what set soO apart as a legend, and what marked ByuL as one of the forgotten greats of late HotS. Trap was less successful outside of the GSL, but his domestic success made him the clear #2 seed headed into BlizzCon.

Stats also had a strong case to take this coming in second place at IEM Katowice and winning ASUS ROG Summer (with wins over Serral and Solar). However, he was extremely disappointing in Code S, not once reaching the playoffs in the entire year (Ro32-Ro16-Ro16 finishes). Weighing peaks vs consistency is always difficult, but in this case, Trap's steadiness edged out Stats' high-profile triumph in Finland.

Amusingly enough, Trap seemed to wrest the title of 'best all-around standard Protoss' from Stats in 2019, showing equal proficiency with devious all-ins and patient macro ("that's far too big a generalization!" cried #1 Trap fan GGemini). Trap was unable to overcome Rogue or Dark in the Code S finals, and one could rightfully criticize him for not having the giga-PROTOSSING ability of Classic or Stats at their nastiest. But those two only showed that ability in limited flashes, while it was Trap who was regularly making it to the final rounds of Code S.

It's a scary new world for Protoss fans with herO and Classic gone to the army. But with Trap at the fore (and Zerg somewhat toned down), there's reason to be hopeful. According to Trap's interviews, his sudden rise in 2019 was as simple a matter as getting over his jitters in important matches. If he can further steel his mentality, then he might go from consistent finalist to consistent champion in 2020.

Written by: Wax

Photo: Carlton Beener (via Blizzard)

At the start of 2019, Dark was one of the most vexing players in StarCraft II. The words 'consistently excellent' were often to describe his regular presence in the depths of the playoffs. But in StarCraft, the word 'consistent' can sometimes be damning with faint praise. It's frequently attached to players who can never go all the way, the ones who can't cross the finish line and lift the trophy. So, too, was it for Dark, whose singular SSL championship run in 2016 protected him from wearing the same letter 'K' around his neck as soO.

All that set the stakes Dark was fighting for in 2019: complete and utter vindication. Now, in 2020, we can say he's earned it.

Dark's long title drought was broken with three championships: Code S Season 2, Super Tournament #2, and the WCS Global Finals. Code S had been the most persistent monkey on his back—his inability to even reach the finals of the most storied and prestigious tournament in Korea was a black mark on his career. Can you be a legend of StarCraft II without winning Code S? Certainly. But for a player like Dark who aspired to unquestioned, unconditional greatness, it was an enormously important box to check off. The Super Tournament title, though not as prestigious, filled the role of the incredibly dominant tournament run an elite player often displays at the apex of their powers. As for the WCS Global Finals—Well, what's to explain? It's the biggest, most lucrative, most desired prize in all of StarCraft II. But for Dark, even the ultimate prize had added meaning, as it had slipped out of his grasp three years prior at BlizzCon 2016. It was both a triumph in the present and redemption for the past.

The highlights of Dark's year were the three championships. But even outside those tournaments, he was constantly playing at a championship level, finishing top four in the two Code S seasons he didn't win, placing top four at IEM Katowice, and top eight at WESG 2018. One doesn't earn the #1 seed in the brutally tough WCS Korea region for nothing.

Now, this award is about celebrating Dark, but we'd be remiss not to address the question: "Why not Serral?"

It does feel a bit odd, even after picking Dark as the winner. Before virtually every tournament in 2019, Serral seemed like the favorite to win—by slim or wide margin. The best word to describe what Serral had might be "force," an old Korean BW term often used to talk about a player's aura of strength; the collective disbelief of the community that they could ever lose a match (it was one of the "criteria" used to judge bonjwas, but we won't get into that here).

The thing is, if Serral was indeed the favorite in all of the tournaments he played in, then why didn't he perform better in them? Which isn't to say he did poorly—he won two WCS titles, two HSC tournaments, and GSL vs The World. But in the most important tournaments with the best players, Dark's overall performance was just better. The WCS Circuit may be getting stronger while the GSL gets weaker with retirements, but Code S is still more meaningful in our eyes than Circuit championships.

Congratulations once more to Dark, on achieving a career-best year that puts him on top of the StarCraft II scene. Many years ago, when Dark was just emerging as a solid Proleague contributor, he said he wanted to win ten championships. It became a point of mockery when he was stuck in a second-place rut, but now it seems like an eminently attainable goal.

For Dark, BlizzCon is merely a checkpoint—not the final destination. Minutes after winning the Global Finals trophy, he said it was unfortunate he didn't get to play Serral in a BlizzCon rematch. Hours later at the press conference, he was already setting his sights on IEM Katowice and all of the big money tournaments coming up ahead. All those goals Dark so loudly proclaims point in the same general direction: his goal isn't to be the player of the year, but to become the best player of all time.

Written by: Wax