In a scene where there are unfortunately so few genuine newcomers, it’s difficult for a player to truly be a breakout star. Dream’s silver medal at IEM Katowice 2013 and stunning displays in the past have long hinted at a player with the ability to ascend to the elite, while Rogue’s Proleague success for Jin Air in 2014 ensured that he was a known quantity well before his five quarterfinals in six starleagues in 2015. If you’re opting for ‘Most Improved’ as the definition, ByuL deserves a mention, going from a Code S Round of 32 participant to a triple consecutive starleague finalist; but again, it’s hard to ever designate an ex-WCS runner up as a ‘breakout’ success.

In the end, democracy in the voting process meant that Dream won out over his rivals. Prior to 2015, he had only ever made a single season of Code S (S3 in 2013), falling out instantly with a 1-4 record. His 2014 was nearly wholly barren, with a single appearance in the first Season of Code A his only individual achievement all year long. The transformation from that patchy player on MVP, capable of spellbinding play in isolated incidents, to the dual starleague finalist and Proleague star for SKT in 2015 has been immediate and remarkable.

It’s perhaps the curse of a great map that it’s only truly appreciated when it’s gone. Such it was with Whirlwind in 2013, Frost in 2014, and now King Sejong Station in 2015. Familiarity mostly breeds contempt with maps that have overstayed their welcome—a good example being the relatively stale and predictable games on Overgrowth following its overexposure. The sign of a great map though is one which seems to keep evolving with the meta, ever offering different options and paths to take, allowing fresh tactics to develop even into the twilight of its lifespan. It’s noticeable, for example, that it became a completely different map in zerg matchups following the death of the swarm host.

While it originally made its debut in Proleague 2014, King Sejong Station endured long afterwards, providing us with countless great games across all matchups. What KSS got right was combining its innovation with some tried and tested features. Unlike most maps that follow a linear structure across the side of the map, KSS pushed the natural forward towards the middle of the map with two ramps leading forward. To keep it safe early game it had one ramp blocked. This small experiment turned out beautifully, as it not only allowed for standard early to mid game strategies to occur, but also opened the way for some more bespoke strategies tailored to the occasion. Late game you could expect to have the entire map used given the abundance of avenues to attack and maneuver. Outside the first two bases, the other expansions were also well placed, no base being too hard or too easy to defend. All these came together to produce many games where players were forced to engage in wars of positioning and multitasking across the entire battlefield.

In the end, despite this year being flooded by new maps, it was the old veteran that stood out above the rest; from the reception to its second debut this year in Proleague, it might carry on shining for a while yet.

While this category has been far less competitive than in previous years, there are still a few honourable mentions that deserve a spotlight. DeParture’s goofy grin and unbridled joy as he lifted the trophy at Gfinity was only tempered by the non-existent crowd in attendance; Losira’s earth-shattering roar after beating ByuL in Proleague was surely one of the most giffed moments of the season; while sOs’ victory parade on the catwalk to the BlizzCon trophy was a champagne moment at the end of the Starcraft year.

However, since Dreamhack Valencia, there was always only going to be one winner. There are few more delightful things than seeing a player finally rewarded for his years of service, and there are few players more deserving of that reward than Curious. His traditionally emotionless face has almost become as much a part of his allure as his stellar, rock-solid gameplay and tragic status as the Gatekeeper of Code S. In a year when he’s smashed through the barriers that had constrained him for so long, it’s fitting that one of the most indelible images of the year is of him on the Dreamhack stage, with cork popped and champagne flying into the air, the beginnings of a smile on his face.

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The difficulty of surpassing the language barrier in StarCraft—and indeed, in any discipline—has always been one of the bigger topics when it comes to players and their personalities. All we ever see from players is their performance in game, though we have been treated to more post-game interviews as of late. Still, hearing on-the-spot translations that only get the gist of what they're saying just doesn't have as much of an impact as hearing and understanding a person's tone, inflections, diction, and of course, meaning.

Of all the interviews conducted throughout the year in any language, not one humanized a player more than this interview with ByuL. In it he details his struggle as a BW practice partner, his life under Fnatic, his 2nd place finishes, the future, and even his mother. The length at which he answers simple questions and the openness with which he shares his feelings and his innermost thoughts will touch even the most jaded of fans. He is poignant, polite, and most of all, persevering. It is the kind of interview that changes ones perceptions, and perhaps, even draw a tear.

Some people may read the interview and imagine ByuL as sad or perhaps even broken. It was one of the prevailing stories of the year, that his repeated failures had finally crippled his spirit. Yet underlining this interview is his unshaken determination to gain the respect of his peers, to fight until he has nothing left to give, and to make his mother proud.

Strategy in 2015 was undeniably dominated by one event—the swarm host nerf in early April. Gone was the zerg’s natural defensive tool; gone too was their ability to rely on cost efficiency to starve out an opponent. The consequences of the changes resulted in the two pre-eminent strategies of the year.

For protoss, the loss of the swarm host as a ranged, cost-efficient threat meant that the need for AOE damage was severely reduced. While colossi had previously been all but guaranteed in the mid to late game, they were an unnecessary risk in the post-patch world, especially with the growing trend of heavy viper usage among zergs. What resulted was the realisation that the versatility of blink stalkers was often all that was required, with micro and mobility trumping the zerg’s midgame tech of choice.

For terran, the loss of the swarm host meant that siege tanks (and by extension mech) once again ruled unhindered. Mech had previously been stymied by the zerg’s ability to siege the terran with swarm hosts and spore crawlers while expanding unhindered behind, relying on cost efficiency and the ability to remax to starve out the terran. Now, though, the lack of a natural threat once the terran amassed a sufficient siege tank count meant the terran could happily turtle on 3-4 bases, while no adequate counter was ever truly identified for the subsequent late game tech switch to sky terran. Thus, the game revolved around zerg’s attempt to smash through the terran army in time, relying on huge banks and multiple instant remaxes to get the job done.

In the end, the prize has to go to blink. While mech was the dominant strategy in TvZ and TvT at the end of the year, heavy blink usage was prevalent in all three protoss matchups, with PartinG’s exceptional PvT record in particular (81% win rate in 2015, with a 55-7 record in matches played) testament to its power against terran as well.

In any prior era of Starcraft 2, the demise of GOMTV would undoubtedly have been the leading news story of the year. For six years, they defined the Starcraft 2 scene in Korea—showing us the best players, playing the best games. Their influence on storylines past, present, and future is indelible. So for their departure from the Starcraft arena to provoke mourning, rather than doom-mongering, is quite an about turn. A large portion of that is down to SPOTV’s stellar handling of the debut year of the SSL in 2015 alongside their Proleague broadcasts—finally giving us another option in Korean Starcraft content—while Afreeca’s commitment to slotting in as a replacement has been seamless as we move into 2016.

The prize, then, goes to Blizzard’s dual moves at the end of the year. If the mass changes moving from Heart of the Swarm to Legacy of the Void weren’t sufficient, the announcement of the alterations to the WCS system promise to deliver an almost unrecognisable landscape in 2016. Gone will be the array of popular Korean tourists in foreign tournaments (save for notable pseudo-Americans Polt, viOLet and Hydra); gone is the league format for WCS. The deliciously packed triple-season Korean schedule for 2015 has been cut down moving forwards, while commitments to WCS Global Events remain worryingly vague. Unlike last year, when the reaction to the revised WCS system was uniformly positive, reception this time round has been much more mixed, if only for the uncertainty that still clouds our understanding of the bigger picture. Only time will tell if the bold move will pay off.

Once more, a fresh zerg competitor stepped up to lead the horde in 2015; once more, he has fallen. For soO in 2014, read ByuL in 2015. While the battle between two players is often the flashiest—the one that gathers the biggest crowds and elicits the greatest cheers or tears—they aren't always the most compelling. Sometimes the most important, the hardest and most excruciating battles are fought against yourself.

Throughout the years, ByuL has been a rock solid player with a steady upward trajectory to his improvement. While he was never flashy, he was consistent and tenacious, adapting to many different metas. This year though ByuL finally became a championship contender, making multiple impressive runs against the best that Korea had to offer. But despite his best efforts, despite his clear ability to stand toe to toe with the best players in the world and defeat them, ByuL was never able to vanquish his inner demons. Apart from his finals against Rain, where he only took one game, ByuL always made the other finals a close affair, fighting to the very end against the course that fate had set him on.

In the end it was not enough, as ByuL was never able to gain momentum in a series, or stop his opponent when he did so. Like his zerg brother from last year, ByuL's worst enemy this year turned out to be himself.

It’s common that by the end of a game’s lifespan, the optimal strategies have all been mapped out. While Broodlord Infestor dominated the scene at the end of Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm saw a similar convergence to uniform tactics in each matchup. Blink stalkers dominated the PvZ metagame, while mech resurfaced in TvZ following the swarm host nerf. While there’s a certain beauty to a player’s ability to play ‘standard’ better than anyone else, that ubiquity naturally means that we gravitate towards the enigmas of the scene; those who refuse to bow down to the universally acknowledged ways of playing the game.

GuMiho, for example, whose insistence on overwhelming by multitasking, and tank play in TvP, is both his eternal weakness and raison d'être; Has, who clocked up a second year of baffling, glorious cheese; sOs, whose catalogue of builds and ability to rise to the big occasion remains thoroughly unquestionable; or Life himself, whose arrogant dismissal of his challengers at BlizzCon was just as memorable as his rise to new heights at the start of the year.

It’s therefore something of a surprise perhaps that the player who stood out above the rest in 2015 was most lauded for his mastery of the orthodox. Racking up five games in our list of the Top 40 Games of the Year (four in the top fifteen), Dream stood out in 2015 as the player most capable of turning the dial all the way up to 11. It’s impossible to talk about his year without reference to his TvZ—never before has the dichotomy between what the stats say (45% win rate for the year) and what our eyes tell us been so apparent. Dream plays the game on a knife edge; his style demands perfection. When not in peak form, it’s liable to all go horribly wrong, but on those days when he nails it, there are few players in Starcraft history who have ever looked so good.

With all the changes brought in for Legacy of the Void, it’s likely that the bio vs muta ling bane battles in TvZ will never again be quite so ubiquitous; it’s fitting then, that Dream saw out the matchup with play that was at times as close to perfection as we’ve ever seen. One of the defining moments of the year was his second SSL match against Life in Season 2. As the victory screen flashed up after his victory in the final set on Overgrowth, he slumped over in his seat, drained after a gruelling match. Emerging from the booth, he was greeted by the Nexon Arena chanting his name. There can be no greater compliment.

Obviously this was going to be the ‘winner’. Obviously. Nothing else even came remotely close. And just as the wounds started to heal, fresh allegations in 2016 kicked off a whole new wave of bullshit drama. Fuck ‘em. If you want to beat them, carry on watching the game we love.

It is said that in the world of Starcraft: there are not 3, but 4, races: Zerg, Protoss, Terran, and Korean Terran. While, as ever, Korean players of all races displayed depths of dexterity, intelligence, composure, and sheer game knowledge that outmatched any foreigner, the gulf remained markedly wider for the terran race. Consider for instance how, of the greatest foreigners, almost none bear the triumphant blue eagle next to their name; Stephano, HuK, NaNiwa, IdrA, Scarlett are all bearers of either the zerg symbol or the protoss motif. Whether that’s due to the sheer excellence of the Korean terran contingent that’s dominated the game since release, or down to the increased mechanical and multitasking requirements that are necessary to excel, it’s undoubted that foreigner terrans have always been that one step behind.

And yet, the future seems brighter in 2016. MarineLorD finally proved his worth offline, reaching the quarterfinals in WCS Season 3, before his stunning achievements in NationWars straddling the New Year’s festivities. However, it was Bunny who again retained his crown as the terran to beat. One round of 8 finish, and two semifinal exits in WCS left him tantalisingly close to a first premier final—for comparison, MarineLorD was the only other non-Korean terran to even make the round of 8 once.

He defeated ForGG, the king of European TvT; he took eventual champion Polt to the deciding set in Season 1, and even went up 2-1 in the series. Had he not choked in the 4th game, where he had a clear lead, then we would have had a foreign Terran in the finals of a Premier Tournament, an occurrence so rare it last happened in 2012, when ThorZaIN defeated Polt at Dreamhack.

Coming into 2015, it was remarkable to note the relative paucity of Maru’s trophy cabinet. For all the plaudits he had received, his breakout performance in the 2013 OSL still remained the sole victory to his name. While that certainly wasn’t for poor form or lack of trying—a mind boggling five major top 4 finishes (two in the GSL; one apiece at the WCS Season 3 Finals and BlizzCon in 2013; one in the Hot6ix Cup) in the 18-odd months since tells its own story of missed opportunities—the inability to finish the job must have irked the Jin Air terran.

Fast forward one year, and that craving for another title was finally answered. Losing to Life at IEM Taipei due a single lapse in concentration must have been a bitter pill to swallow, but victory in the debut season of the SSL was just reward for his sparkling early-season form. Nowhere was that more apparent than in his semifinal defeat of Stats, where his control of the TvP matchup became readily apparent, coming out on top in unwinnable engagements through sheer force of micro alone.

That dominance of the matchup also contributed heavily to his ongoing Proleague excellence, with a 14-3 record in the matchup over the year. His overall score (27-16) was somewhat tainted though by his poor Round 4 / Playoffs form—in the first three rounds, he was by far the outstanding player in the competition, racking up an eye-raising 25-9 record.

While INnoVation’s year was similarly praiseworthy, with a GSL title, IEM trophy (albeit over a weak field) and an 18-7 record in Proleague to maintain his stellar Starcraft 2 teamleague record, we eventually tilted in favour of the Jin Air man. Both players had dips in form during the year, but at Maru’s peak he looked seemingly untouchable. Alongside PartinG’s PvT, no player displayed as complete a mastery of a single matchup as Maru’s TvP over the course of the year.

For the Norwegian Zerg player, it was a year of almost, but not quite. On paper, Snute had everything to pick up the foreigner mantle, but just couldn’t quite pull through. Mirroring his runs in 2014, the year’s WCS efforts were decided in the savage brawls of the groups. The first season was also his best ranking, reaching the quarterfinals until finally falling to Bunny. The second season didn’t see him emerge from the round of 32, while in the third he fell in the round of 16. Other tournaments saw similarly disappointing results, and for most of the year, championships remained elusive. Snute seemed destined to be stuck in the group stages, with the occasional run through quarter and semifinals. A shining star amid all the bleakness came in July at IEM Shenzen. In a feat that reminded everyone why we root for him, Snute plowed through Rain and Classic, the reigning GSL and SSL champions at the time, until finally falling to TY in the dreaded quarterfinals. In an otherwise lackluster year for the Zerg, it was a sight to behold. But it wasn’t until the end of 2015 that he was able to gain real momentum again.

Come November, Snute picked up one of the first big titles of Legacy of the Void, winning the GPL 2015 International Challenge in Shanghai, the championship run there including a triumph over Jaedong. At DreamHack Winter he was manning the caster desk, but again he reached the semifinals of HomeStory Cup XII, paving his way back towards the top in 2016.

The position as top zerg has been one with many contestants over the years, but in this neverending race one player always was a constant variable: Life. He has sported impressive results every year since his break-out—sometimes more, sometimes less—but 2015 certainly marked another peak in terms of consistency. And competition wasn't easy in that regard: People like ByuL really turned the heat up and made a serious case for ascending to the throne.

The first half of the year stood out in particular from Life. 2015 began with greatness, as the zerg was able to take the title in one of the hardest IEM tournaments ever, thereby producing the most watched ESL StarCraft 2 VOD of all time: The Grand Final at IEM Taipei against Maru—a close 4-3 victory—achieved in typical Life fashion. Only a month later Life missed becoming the first ever double stareague champion of StarCraft 2. He was able to claim victory in GSL Code S, beating PartinG in another tight and tense final, but fell one game short in the SSL against Dream. Once again a ZvT with Life playing the zerg part burned itself into the collective memory of the StarCraft 2 community as one of the best series of the year.

Life later got his revenge at KeSPA Cup, eliminating Dream, but he wasn't able to go farther than the top 4 himself. After KeSPA Cup in May, Life flew under the radar for the remainder of the year. But, as it is with Life, he came back just in time for the big occasion at BlizzCon. After derailing the hype trains surrounding Lilbow and INnoVation with ease, he came out on top in a tight match against Classic to reach the final of BlizzCon for a second time in the row. He may have fallen painfully short, but once again he was the zerg on top of the world.

It is a simple fact of life that results matter, and in Starcraft 2 they matter a whole lot. Lilbow’s inclusion on the list in two different categories is downright due to his results. He might have faced criticism later in the year, but no other foreign Protoss took up the mantle in 2015. There’s just no other way to look at it.

While there were other tournaments over the year, starleagues will always be the most prestigious tournaments in Starcraft. Thus, their results also carry the most weight, and thus for foreigners, WCS Seasons are unquestionably the biggest events of the year. Had MaNa managed to bring the WCS season 3 finals in his favor, this list might have looked very different. It remains to be seen if Lilbow turns out to be a shooting star, fading from the limelight in 2016. The rest of the year wasn’t particularly favorable for the French Protoss, even though he managed to snatch third place in GPL 2015 International Challenge. For now though, his results outshine every other foreign Protoss, and in the harsh world of competitive gaming, that’s all that matters.

With the number of truly top-class protoss in Korea at an all-time high in 2015, it was somewhat inevitable that this would end up being one of the most close fought and hotly debated topics. sOs deserves an honourable mention, for brushing off his early-year slumber to peak in form at the business end of the season. His all-kill of KT Rolster, and indeed his entire playoffs run, was one of the highlights of the year, while cashing in his third six figure cheque of the four offered in Starcraft 2 history only succeeded in strengthening our preconceptions of his nature. Equally, while Zest’s results are a little less eye catching compared to his annus mirabilis of 2014, an IEM World Championship crown combined with a perfect 11-0 record in Proleague Round 4 shouldn’t be ignored lightly. Meanwhile, Rain finally delivered on the unlimited potential he had displayed when he led the KeSPA charge in 2012, claiming a long awaited GSL title.

For all those players’ claims, though, dominance of the protoss year comes down to two players. Coming into this year, Classic was perhaps the most underappreciated GSL champion in history. Derided as a mere patchtoss in the blink era; mocked for falling out of Code S at the first hurdle of his title defence, his continued excellence in 2015 has been one of the stories of the year. For a six month period surrounding his Season 2 peak, he registered 70%+ win rates in all three matchups, and yet come BlizzCon, it became apparent that he remains bafflingly underrated. With an SSL title, an IEM trophy, and a second top four finish at the Global Finals under his belt, not to mention his consistent performances in Proleague, we can only hope that he gets his due respect in 2016.

For all that Classic did, however, herO did just that little bit more. While a second consecutive elimination at BlizzCon by Classic may rankle, herO’s starleague results were the best of the year (SSL Season 3 champion, two semifinals, three Ro.16s). A KeSPA Cup trophy was also added to his burgeoning haul, and it was another season of solid consistency on the Proleague front for CJ. It was a year of firsts for him—first victory in Korea, first starleague title—and next season, with IEM success no longer an option for him, a Proleague title may well be targeted with greater intensity as the last box left unticked.

While we were finalising our list of the Best Games of 2015, debate raged amongst the writing staff. There's always plenty of healthy argument between the staff regarding the very best game of the year, and yet on this we were nearly completely unanimous (even militant PvP fan Olli!)—it came down to two of the matches between Dream and Life. So, which one do you prefer? Gutsy defence or large scale warfare? The scrappiest of unorthodox holds or the perfection of standard play? While we opted for the Merry Go Round game in the end, frankly they're both winners. As a double bill, there was nothing finer all year.

For our full list of the Best Games of 2015, please click here

It’s somewhat ironic that in dismantling their galacticos policy from 2014, SKT have improved in almost every measure this year. Losing five men of the calibre of PartinG, Soulkey, BrAvO, Rain and FanTaSy would be fatal to every other team in the league; for SKT, it simply cleared space for the next generation to step through. Individually, they have excelled. INnoVation and Classic have led the way, with an IEM and a starleague title apiece; soO won the most stacked online tournament in Starcraft history, before banishing his offline demons in KeSPA Cup to win his first LAN event; while Dream and Dark have tallied up four silvers between them.

However, it’s in team competition where they’ve truly displayed the obscene depth in their roster. While statistically it may seem that they don’t possess a heavy hitter on the level of Zest, herO, or the Jin Air trio of Maru, sOs and Rogue (all five of whom broke the 25 win barrier this season—soO led the way for SKT with a comparatively mild 19 wins), the real strength of SKT is that that type of hard carry is wholly unnecessary for them. Of those who have played a minimum of fifteen games, SKT possess the top four players in the competition ranked by win percentage (soO, INnoVation, Dream, Classic), while Dark places barely outside the top ten. Given support and pride of place in any other team in the league, each one of those five players has the potential to score the most wins in the whole of Proleague; that they have to fight for their place every week, rotated in and out as circumstances and form dictate, only highlights the number of options iloveoov has at his disposal, making this year's SKT a much more unpredictable and varied threat than the 2014 variant. To have an ace-quality player immediately elevates a team to playoff contenders (see StarTale in Round 1); to have a couple makes them candidates for the title (see KT Rolster in 2014). To have five, in a league which only allows you to choose a maximum of four a week, is just plain greedy.

With that kind of firepower, their romp to the Proleague title this year was telegraphed from the start, winning 79% of their matches at an unbelievable 88-47 map record. Should their roster click moving forwards into Legacy of the Void, it’ll take one hell of an effort for another team to displace them next year.

Coming into 2015, we had the closest thing to an unknown quantity in Korean tournaments for quite some time. GOMTV’s previous monopoly of the scene had lasted for five years, while OGN’s brief foray into running OSLs in SC2 brought a certain degree of expectation given the revered quality of their productions in Brood War. SPOTV had fared well with 2014’s iteration of Proleague, but adding on the further requirements of running three seasons of league competition was a step up.

Fortunately, they knocked it out of the park. The SSL in 2015 was a great success, from their beefed up production quality to the first outdoor league finals in Korea in years. Most importantly though, the games held up, and Season 2 was the best of the lot. Dream’s second playoffs battle with Life in two seasons was, of course, a major highlight, but it was hardly the be all and end all of an exceptional season. ByuL delivered the first signs of his ascent to the zerg throne in Korea, beating INnoVation in macro TvZ; Dear continued his resurgence with a entertaining series win over a still struggling sOs; while Bbyong’s attempt to play mech vs carriers against Zest was one of the more hilariously misguided moments of the year. We had herO conquering his two nightmares in PartinG and Maru, before being blown away by Dream’s whirlwind of destruction in the semifinals, as well as a genuinely enthralling PvPvPvP group. On top of it all, we had Classic reclaiming his place at the top end of the Korean scene, proving that his GSL title in 2014 was no mere fluke. It’s a shame that the format—Bo5 Challenge round, into the standard format for the Round of 16 and beyond—won’t be retained heading into 2016.

You want to know why this was probably the greatest single-day tournament in Starcraft 2 history? Look at the list of players in attendance. Representatives of all eight KeSPA teams were signed up, including seemingly the entire SKT and CJ Entus rosters, participating in a gigantic 64 man double elimination bracket that hearkened back to the glory days of IPL5. Unfortunately, we were limited to a single stream, and much of the action passed us by, relayed through the Live Report thread and increasingly worn-down F5 keys (meaning we’ll never know how the hell Zest was eliminated by XY and B4).

Of the games we saw though, several were of genuine quality—Classic’s late game showdown with INnoVation in particular, along with soO's clashes with Dream—and it also showed that Dear was still a force to be reckoned with, a few months before his return to the GSL semifinals. The big storyline, however, had to be soO’s long awaited first tournament victory in Starcraft 2, a mere week before his greater triumph on stage in KeSPA Cup Season 2. While there were certainly disappointments—the large number of no-shows, and the limitations of a single stream of content—the organisers deserve no small amount of respect for the scale of their ambition, in addition to their constant commitment to daily cups throughout the year.

Similarly, the Olimoleague deserves an honourable mention for helping to prop up the previously ailing Korean online scene. No other tournament caters so overtly to the fan, and the allure of beating a Korean pro has kept LR heroes coming back week after week. With the recent changes to the WCS system, such online events will prove more important than ever in 2016.

While there’s no replacement for HomeStory Cup’s signature brand of joy, weirdness and alcohol, or Dreamhack’s love of euro-techno, no weekend competition offers the same cutthroat atmosphere of a KeSPA Cup. It’s a competition where merely succeeding in the qualifiers is a noteworthy achievement. As such, the heightened stakes of a tournament featuring sixteen players, all of whom have genuine designs on the title, is a welcome addition to our annual roster of events.

Even by those standards, though, Season 2 stood out. We were treated to a typical FanTaSy struggle to the death against Dark—swinging to the bitter end, Dream getting his revenge on Maru, and Pigbaby unleashing his cheese on ByuL. We had Flash’s nail-biter against Classic, and what proved to be the final top four run of his career. We had Dream performing at the very limit of his TvZ potential… and still being swept away 3-0 by Dark in peak form. Most of all, though, we had the soO we were promised in 2014—dominating the bracket all the way through. There were few more heartwarming moments last year than game 4 of the finals on Coda, where three correct calls in a row by soO allowed him to steal away a game he had no right to win. As he basked in the glow of the GG, and the three match points he had to convert his lead into a tangible achievement, we truly realised that this time, finally, there would be no failure on the big stage.

Say what you will about his openness on twitter, or the Korean exodus from the WCS system at the turn of the year; you can’t take Lilbow’s achievements in 2015 away from him. While some have hit isolated peaks over the year, and others have been more consistent, no non-Korean matched Lilbow’s combination of the two over the course of the year. In reaching the Season 2 Finals in Toronto, he touched the glass ceiling set by Stephano all the way back in early 2013; in claiming the Season 3 title, he smashed all the way through.

27 WCS leagues after the debut of the new regionalised system, the foreign Starcraft scene has its first champion. After the Korean all-kill of 2013, Sen held the line in 2014, wrestling a premier title away from our all-conquering overlords. In winning a WCS event, Lilbow has repeated the feat, and has set the bar even higher as we move into Legacy of the Void. That said, Starcraft’s history is filled with players who have burned too bright and too fast, and in declining to take his shot at BlizzCon, Lilbow himself has raised the expectations of his achievements in 2016. Time will tell if he is ready again to step up to the task.

Unlike 2014, when Zest bestrode the Korean scene as the colossus of KT, there was no player who maintained a clear dominant streak throughout 2015. sOs stole the show at the end of the year, igniting the afterburners just in time to carry Jin Air to the Proleague Finals, and to claim the BlizzCon title for himself. ByuL’s déjà soO end to the year was heartbreaking to watch, as he took over the SKT zerg’s legacy with all too predictable a conclusion. Classic and herO carried the torch for protoss for much of the year—a weekender trophy and starleague apiece, allied to two of the best Proleague records for 2015. Maru was possibly the most feared player in Proleague all year long, redefining the TvP matchup while maintaining his TvT dominance until his Season 3 decline following the resurgence of mech in the mirror meta.

However, the award has to go to Life, whose in-game invincibility and string of results in the early parts of the year was as good as we’ve ever seen. A tough fought victory at IEM Taipei over a strong field was soon followed by the GSL title after an ultimately unsuccessful tilt for dual starleague glory, beaten 3-4 by the best TvZ we’ve seen in the game’s six year history. Given ByuL’s final-woes, Life’s pair of Season 1 events is still the closest we’ve come to a dual champion in Starcraft 2. His mid-season ‘slump’ was pronounced in comparison, with a Ro.4 finish in KeSPA Cup 1 and another exit to Dream in the SSL Season 2 quarterfinals the best of the bunch, while a late rally to claim 2nd at BlizzCon was as predictable as it was impressive, for a player who’s always seemed to need additional motivation to unlock his very best. Some players have matched his starleague results, while others have matched his weekender haul, but no one has quite done both as well as the KT Rolster zerg.

Much like 2014, 2015 was not a great year for starleague finals, with the Kong curse chain seamlessly bridging the winter break after the fourth and last of soO’s historic run of GSL finals. Dream’s dual SSL failures alongside ByuL’s triple silvers set the narrative for the year, with both showing considerably weaker play at their respective final hurdles. PartinG’s clash with Life in GSL Season 1 was the notable exception, but even that owed more to the tension surrounding the back and forth nature of the series than a set of particularly outstanding games.

Fortunately, the weekenders delivered yet again, and there were three events that clearly stood out from the rest. First of all, the finals at IEM Taipei in late January gave us the first match of the year between 2015’s standout players. In what remains his sole foreign non-WCS appearance, Maru showed a level of control over the TvZ matchup that he’s struggled to match since to go up 3-1, while Life showed stellar play to mount a comeback, before taking advantage of Maru’s dodgy wall-off with a ling bust that was all too predictable in its inevitability. A second near reverse-sweep occurred in Season 1 of WCS, where Polt and Hydra delivered the first great series in the revised format. It was a perfect encapsulation of the CM Storm man’s determination and resilience, featuring desperate defences and never-ending parade pushes, resulting in his third WCS title.

The best of the lot, though, was the WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon between sOs and Life. Never before had the stakes been higher. We’ve been conditioned to expect one-sided dominance at WCS Finals (three 4-0s in WCS Season Finals from 2013; two 4-1s at BlizzCon in consecutive years), while IEM’s World Championships in Katowice have hardly fared better, so after a somewhat disappointing, error-strewn tournament, hopes for a final rivalling the all-time greats were somewhat tempered. Instead, what we got was a fascinating back and forth clash, with the mental aspect of the game brought to the fore. There were predictable sOs moments of magic—cannon rushing Life’s third before proxying a stargate on location was cheeky in the extreme—along with some true heart-in-mouth moments—Life’s crucial warp prism snipe on Cactus Valley to keep himself in contention and tie up the series at 3-3, for example. Inevitably, the series ended with a characteristic early pool from Life in Game 7; just as fittingly, sOs’ big game instincts took over enough for him to seal the victory, and to claim the very last trophy of Heart of the Swarm.