Best Games of the Month: October and November 2019 Edition

Compiled and written by Elentos et al.

Best games of the month is back!

Indeed, after a lengthy hiatus that had some readers wondering if TL.net's popular feature would ever return, we're here with a super-size edition to make up for lost ground. A lot of these games will be ones you've already seen, as October and November saw the 2019 season conclude in a series of high profile tournaments. But there's the usual smattering of obscure games as well, lest anyone think the Best Games committee will live down its 'we watch everything' reputation. As you watch some of these fantastic, hand-curated games, you might even forget the horror of total Zerg domination. So what are you waiting for? Dive into the list!

2019 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament #2

• PartinG vsTY
Thunderbird - Ro8

TY vs PartinG may not be StarCraft's most storied rivalry, but that the two do have a hstory. In fact, it was a history of TY never winning a single offline match against his Protoss counterpart. Only Dark and herO have historically harried TY more than Won Lee Sak. And it just so happened that the two of them ended up meeting in the Ro8 of the Super Tournament for their first major clash in nearly four years. More importantly, at the time, both players still had a tiny chance to make it to the Global Finals. However poor their odds, neither player was going to squander the rare opportunity.

After catching PartinG off guard with a proxy in the first game, TY suddenly busted out the mech play. Mech vs Protoss, as we all remember, had led to the stand-out game of the first Super Tournament between Stats and Maru. As it turns out, history often repeats itself, and this game ended up being incredible as well.

• TY vs herO
Disco Bloodbath - Ro4

Though they shared the stage of the semifinals, TY and herO didn't head into this match as equals in the eyes of fans. They had both dispatched their round 1 opponents with relative ease—RagnaroK for TY and Dream for herO. They notched wins over PartinG and Classic in the following round, but TY left a deeper impression with his mech shenaniganry against PartinG.

herO seemed at a loss against TY, finding himself down 0-2 after falling to bio-mech and mech. If PartinG's ground-based attacks hadn't worked, and herO's previous attempt at sky toss hadn't worked either, how could TY's mech ever be broken? To boot, herO actually had a really bad early game on Disco Bloodbath and looked to be on his way to an unceremonious 0-3. But then something clicked. What if he combined air units and hyper aggressive ground assaults?

• Dark vs TY
Winter's Gate - Grand Finals

For all intents and purposes, the finals of the Super Tournament had been a stomp up to this point. Dark looked to be out of TY's league, and anyone's league for that matter. He had dominated everyone in the tournament, and the championship was his for the taking. An unceremonious 4-0 seemed unavoidable, but it was the only justifiable outcome. There was to be no co-star in this final: Dark was going to make sure this tournament was all about him.

But TY wouldn't be held in as high esteem by everyone in our scene as he is if he simply waived the white flag when he was down 0-3. Instead, he provided us with an absolutely insane slug fest. This incredible bio/mine vs Zerg game really lived up to the expression 'goes the distance' as both players ran out resources and bases after brutal and costly fighting. And the ultimate outcome, the victor of the battle, was not decided by the much talked-about Zerg imbalance. Instead, this was two players clashing as near equals, won by the narrowest of margins by the player who made one less mistake.

China Team Championship: Season 2 Playoffs

• FanTaSy vs INnoVation
Disco Bloodbath - 1st place seeding match

When FanTaSy returned to StarCraft II in mid-2018, many fans were elated. The 'Terrorist Terran' was a fan favorite, not simply because of his Brood War accolades, but because his competitive drive pushed him to return to a scene with active pro competition instead becoming a streamer like many of his peers. It took a while for him to get back to his pre-military level, but he did get there, albeit slowly.

As FanTaSy's performances kept improving, his fans were increasingly optimistic that he might make an impact in a major tournament. This very match between Pixel 1 and KaiZi convinced a lot of people that FanTaSy could finally become a top dog in 2020. We'll just spoil it: FanTaSy scored an all-kill against KaiZi, defeating INnoVation twice along the way.

Alas, as amazing as his all-kill was, a mere month after this performance FanTaSy decided to take his career in a new direction, leaving the StarCraft franchise behind and continuing his esports journey as a League of Legends coach. It is for games such as this one between him and INnoVation that we will miss him. A truly scrappy and unique TvT as only FanTaSy could design.

• Trap vs Bunny
Acropolis - Elimination Bracket Round 3

It's safe to say that following a crushing defeat at the hands of Dark in the GSL early in the year, Bunny hit a rough patch. He failed to even get back into Code S, something that should have been routine for a player who seemed to be on the up and up. Alas, Bunny's woes weren't limited to just the GSL, as he failed to really make an impact in other tournaments as well. Initially a starter for KaiZi in the CTC, he found himself frequently benched as the season went on.

If there was ever a time for Bunny to win redemption, it was in KaiZi's playoff match against the Jin Air behemoth. And indeed, he won back some of our respect, taking his first game against deadly PvT player Trap (even Maru failed to take a win against his teammate in the GSL semifinals). But that wasn't enough for Bunny. He wanted to take a second map, eliminate Trap, and put KaiZi on the path to a serious upset. And so, game two commenced, and we saw Trap struggle yet again versus Bunny's solid play. Still, Trap wasn't one to be slowly whittled down without making a decisive move, and he cast the dice on a late-game base trade...

• PartinG vs Rogue
Triton - Grand Finals

In this pivotal match from the finals between Pixel 1 and Jin Air, we saw two stylish and unique players clash in a great PvZ. Rogue entered the match on an absolutely insane hot streak, seemingly tireless after winning 15 maps during a marathon weekend of playoff matches. He had just dispatched of FanTaSy, leaving Pixel 1 to rely on PartinG to turn the tide. Of course, it would have been a lot to ask of anyone to take a clean 2-0 against Rogue. But getting just a single map victory to eliminate Jin Air's Zerg ace? That seemed like a task that PartinG was uniquely qualified for.

PartinG took an early advantage with his adept play, and then transitioned into an odd stalker-disruptor composition. Stalker-disruptor, while seen at times, has never really been standard in Korea. But it's decently powerful against roach/ravager, and is thus occasionally used as a follow-up to adept aggression.

PartinG's initial stalker-disruptor push didn't deal critical damage to Rogue, but neither did Rogue's counter-attack. Nor did PartinG counter-counter-attack after that... So on and on we went in this very eventful game, which eventually saw nydus worms, lurkers and colossuses enter the fray.

2019 WCS Global Finals

• Trap vs Elazer
Disco Bloodbath - Ro16

Amidst general unhappiness with the state of Zerg going into the Global Finals, it feels like Trap's strong PvZ performances have become a bit forgotten. Even if Trap is more famous for his impressive PvT prowess, we should remember that he pushed eventual finalist Reynor to the brink of defeat, and that he won comfortably against the clever Polish Zerg Elazer.

This set on Disco Bloodbath, in particular, deserves some attention. Facing Elazer once more in the group decider match, Trap found himself in an uncomfortable spot after letting his opponent drone up and tech up largely unscathed. His way back into the match? Utilize the map's unique features to the max. Too often we end up thinking about match-ups solely in terms of race and play-style—Trap reminded us that with the right decisions, the map can be just as important.

• Classic vs Rogue
World of Sleepers - Ro8

Classic's retirement, sad and inevitable as it may have been, ultimately made for one of the best story arcs of the year. Ever since Classic was unable to go to IEM Katowice because of his impending military service, there were suspicions he may not make it to Blizzcon despite accruing a huge sum of WCS points. With the support of KeSPA, Classic's participation was confirmed less than 10 days before the start of the group stage. It was a dream scenario for Classic, but it was bittersweet as well: This would be his last tournament before retirement.

One last chance to go out in a blaze of glory. One final stand as Protoss personified. Fitting then, that Classic would encounter Rogue in a do-or-die playoff match. Classic had won most of his matches against Rogue over the years, but Rogue had won their biggest ever clash in the IEM Katowice 2018 finals. Now, with imbalance on Rogue's side, it seemed like he would thrash Classic again in a high-stakes international tournament.

It was time to unleash the built-up anger of Old Man Classic. The dirtiest, most devious, most evil use of Dark Templars since 2016 finally came to fruition. Thank you Classic: you are a legend.

• Serral vs Reynor
Disco Bloodbath - Ro4

After writing the final chapter in the legend of Classic, BlizzCon added another chapter to the rivalry of Serral and Reynor. They duo had split WCS Circuit titles two a piece in 2019, so a match at Blizzcon between Joona Sotala and Riccardo Romiti seemed inevitable.

This game is a truly unique experience. Not just because of all the amazing plays both players made—the two had been pushing the limits of ZvZ for all of 2019. This game is uniquely noteworthy for a different reason. If you give Serral an inch, he will take a mile. That's been an undeniable truth of StarCraft for the last two years. He never throws away even a small advantage, let alone a sizable lead. Usually he's the one pulling off miracle upsets, taking advantage of the tiniest mistake and snowballing it out of control. But conventional wisdom doesn't seem to apply when Reynor is involved. After all, how else could a game such as this ever occur?

HomeStory Cup XX

• PartinG vs Cure
Ephemeron - Losers' round 2

In this case, the two featured players won something more than the honor of being featured on TL.net's exclusive best games list. By popular vote, this game was selected as the best game of HSC 20, and the two players split a whopping $3000 bounty provided by old-school progamer HuK (remember HuK?).

Now, whether or not this was objectively the best game in terms of quality is up for debate (the TL.net best games committee is the sole arbiter of objectivity). However, it certainly offers the best value. This game is a 2 for 1 deal: You buy one, and get one free. The series began with an absolutely insane draw, an exceeding rare treat in professional SC2. But PartinG then continued to entertain us in the rematch, delivering one of the most PartinG-esque games possible.

• MaNa vs SpeCial
Triton - Losers' round 2

MaNa and SpeCial are two of the most renowned players of their races from the non-Korean scene. They've been around since the dawn of time and will likely still be around for the end of days. And in the meantime, almost every single clash of their's produces a game worth featuring in the Best Games series.

Triton is the battlefield of this obscenely scrappy game. Our players threw everything at each other, making sure just about everything they had actually dies at some point. We were, at all times, light years away from any sort of maxing out. But these two couldn't literally fight forever, as much as they would have liked to, and eventually things had to come to an end. Who was going to weather the storm(s)?

• Serral vs Reynor
Acropolis - Grand Finals

Another tournament, another high stakes Reynor vs Serral match, another featured game. Tons of actions from both sides, advantages taken, given, lost and found. At times it seemed like Serral's win, at other times it felt as though Reynor was on the cusp of taking his first HSC championship. It's the caliber of game you wish every tournament final had multiple of. Ultimately, a performance befitting the 20th edition of HomeStory Cup (Take's apartment is starting to get a bit out of hand though).

To summarize, it was your average Reynor vs Serral Acropolis ZvZ.

Various other events that give us our "we watch everything" street cred

• Rogue vs Dream
Disco Bloodbath - Olimoleague Weekly #174 - Ro4

There seems to be something about Rogue playing against meching Terrans on Disco Bloodbath that just amounts to magic. In August, we featured an insane slugfest between the Jin Air Zerg and mech legend GuMiho. This time around, it's Dream taking over as the Terran in our story. As the cherry on top, this game was played on the Balance Test mod for the new patch.

As such, Rogue was somewhat more limited with his arsenal in the late game. However, this game took an eerily similar course to the GuMiho game from August and just turned into a crazy mess. Both players tried to hang on for dear life as they threw ten thousands of resources worth of army at each other in futile attempts to get this game to actually end. And eventually, it did, but not before both players were completely spent.

• soO vs Neeb
World of Sleepers - NationWars 2019 - Ro16

Before you click on the VOD and watch, be warned. This is a game in which soO tries his hand at ZvP late game that goes over 40 minutes. It was also played before the patch, so it may include an infestor and some brood lords here and there. But it IS a soO game.

Now, what does that warning actually mean? Late game PvZ before the patch was regarded as pretty much unwinnable for Protoss when going up against top-tier Zerg players. Between brood lords, infestors, vipers and everything else, Protoss couldn't begin to come up with enough answers to all the questions Zerg players were asking them. Now, soO is certainly a top-tier Zerg player.... just not in the late game. With that complication in mind, we welcome you to investigate this game at your own peril.

• Maru vs Dark
Disco Bloodbath - 2019 BJ Destruction Match Season 3 - Day 1

The BJ Destruction Matches are a series of smaller team league tournaments in Korea. They predominantly take place during the off-season when GSL is on hold, and they require participating players to stream on AfreecaTV for a certain amount of time in the lead-up to the event. So, if your favorite Korean goes ominously quiet on Twitch for a few weeks, then comes back, sometimes this may be why. The event sadly flies under the radar of many fans, as it is available solely on AfreecaTV. AlphaX provides English coverage, but the AfreecaTV player and site aren't exactly popular outside Korea (if you don't mind these inconveniences, you'll be treated to interesting upsets every now and again, such as DRG taking down players like INnoVation or Dark).

But to the point, in the very first match of 2019 Season 3, we went to an 'ace match' immediately, and one that deserves the name. Dark and Maru are the two Korean behemoths of their respective races. This is a GSL viewer's dream come true, for all their success they have dodged each other a lot since the early days of 2018. And this game actually lived up to its end of the bargain and turns out to be everything a fan would want from a Dark vs Maru clash. If only their Blizzcon match had been more like this!

• The "Has" Award for Games that Break the Laws of Men, Gods, and the Universe

• soO vs GuMiho on Winter's Gate
2019 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2 - Ro8

We've given our goodbyes to Classic and FanTaSy today already, and now we also say goodbye to GuMiho. A venerable Best Games legend, he managed to be featured essentially monthly due to his creative builds and frenetic play-style. We were deeply saddened when he quietly announced he would be joining the military in December.

GuMiho has been around since the start of SC2, and he's given us more entertaining and bizarre games than we had any right to ask of him. But that doesn't mean we were ready to say goodbye.

At the very least, at the Super Tournament the GuMibear left us with one last gem. One final game to feature and remember him by. Really, it seems a bit ordinary by GuMiho's standards to just build barracks in the middle of the map and - wait, are those tech labs?!

• DynaMite vs Stats on Triton
Olimoleague Weekly #172 - Ro32

An upset every now and then doesn't hurt anybody. Of course, it's a pretty huge upset when Stats goes out in the Ro32 of Olimoleague against DynaMite. Now, one could make all sorts of excuses for Stats, like bringing up how he never plays at 100% of his abilities in 'minor' events, or how he's quietly struggled with PvT all year long.

But really, none of that really matters, because you could just retort with a single question: "Who even is DynaMite?" Well, he used to be an SKT B-teamer. He's signed to TSG now. And that's about all we can tell you. So watch him beat Stats to learn more.

• Serral vs Goblin on Disco Bloodbath
NationWars 2019 - Ro16

NationWars offers two paths to success. 1) A deep, overall powerful line-up capable of taking down anyone (this is what is expected from Korea every year but in the end it's always just INnoVation winning every game). 2) A shining star player. While the rest of your team may not be as competitive, your ace can make up for any deficit. Few teams embody path #2 better than Finland, the eventual NW 2019 champions.

A match vs Finland basically hinges on a team's ability to take two maps off Serral. This is, of course, much easier said than done. Even notching a single win over Serral is a monumental task for most nations. Then, imagine everyone's surprise, when the Finnish ace dropped a game against Croatia's Goblin. And it wasn't just some sort of run of the mill loss to Rotterdam's favorite Protoss in the universe either. Goblin dominated Serral. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

• Patience vs sOs on Triton
WESG Korea and Mongolia(????) Open Qualifier - Ro8

You know, rather than look at Patience as a regular StarCraft II player, maybe we should consider him some sort of chaotic cosmic entity. Neither good nor evil, he's just looking to make the universe a less predictable place. Many Protoss players have been accused of wielding the "stupid stick" over the years, but it really feels like Patience is its true owner. No one ever seems to play up to their best level against Patience (except when they do, which we'll conveniently forget).

So, it was delightful to see Patience matched up against sOs, a man who hasn't played a normal game of SC2 in years. Many of the games from the WESG Korea and Mongolia (not a joke) qualifier were worth watching, but this match really stood out. It's a game that just should never have happened, yet it did. Because f*** logic, that's why. The truest testament to how bizarre this series was is that even now, over a week after the fact, the official WESG bracket still lists sOs as the winner by a score of 3-0.

• Firefly vs Maru on Winter's Gate
CTC 2019 Season 2 - Grand Finals

Picture this: You're in the Grand Finals of the China Team Champion. Your team is on the ropes, on the verge of crushing defeat. If you lose 0-2 here, that's it, that's all she wrote. If you win a single game, you can salvage the tiniest bit of hope that one of your teammates will come to the rescue. The downside is, YOU are 19 year-old Chinese Protoss Firefly, and your opponent has won 4 GSLs, an OSL and an SSL. What do you do?

Would you have the guts to cannon rush? Knowing full well that if you fail, you will doom your team to ultimate defeat? Knowing that cannon rushing vs Terran has always been considered bad because they can wall their ramp or float their buildings? Would you follow it up with a gateway all-in? And would you make it work?

More recommended games from October and November

There's always more StarCraft.

Cure vs Patience - Full Series - VOD
Cure vs Reynor - Full Series - VOD
Dark vs soO on Thunderbird - VOD
Dark vs Maru on Thunderbird - VOD
herO vs TY on Winter's Gate - VOD
herO vs Reynor - Full Series - VOD
INnoVation vs Maru on Disco Bloodbath - VOD
INnoVation vs Reynor - Full Series (Group Stage) - VOD
INnoVation vs Rogue on Disco Bloodbath - VOD
INnoVation vs Rogue on Triton - VOD
PartinG vs Rogue on Winter's Gate - VOD
Rogue vs Patience on Ephemeron - VOD
Rogue vs Stats on Triton - VOD
Serral vs ShoWTimE on Triton - VOD
TaeJa vs TY - Full Series - VOD
TRUE vs Dream on Ephemeron - VOD
Zoun vs RagnaroK on Disco Bloodbath - VOD

Best Games of September 2019

Best Games of August 2019

Best Games of July 2019

Best Games of June 2019

Best Games of April and May 2019

Best Games of March 2019

Best Games of February 2019

Best Games of January 2019

The Best Games of 2018: Year End List

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