Which Blizzconn do you think really was the most spectacular spectacle of them all. A true master class of showmanship?
My #1 would probably have to be sOs vs Jaedong.
Jaedong had been on an absolutely unreal tear and was ruining people, leaving rubble in his wake, the Tyrant had returned. Yet perpetually haunted by his "Kong" moniker. But I mean whos kidding who, Jaedong is by far, to me, the greatest Zerg who ever lived. Who actually transitioned between both worlds, a very tough feat for most players like Flash. Who's potential was realized to a very very large extent at least. Yet this crushing crushing defeat of masterclass subterfuge and trickery from sOs just I think really blew everyones minds. Anyways, what do you guys think?
I remember being hyped for sOs vs Life. Life at the time was the hot thing, he was killing hellions with lings and was on another level. Legacy of the Void was about to be released and the tournament had 2v2 archon show matches with some legends, or big foreigner names. sOs v Life was a 4-3 I do not know if the matches were really good, but I do remember the series being a nail biter.
sOs vs Life was probably the most intense final If you mean about storytelling/hype, Serral being the first non Korean to win was probably the best I know it's not Blizzcon but soO winning the IEM was also a top tier world championship
The way sOs got inside the head of the Tyrant by deploying some strategies we had not seen before and the cannon rush/ pylon mindgames were just on another level. He also had a macro game where he survived the typical roach, hydra, viper style of Jaedong and also predicted the his lategame muta switch.
Before that, sOs beat Bomber with the zealot archon style, and Jaedong completely obliterated Dear who had been on an unstoppable rampage the months before.
For me personally, it was Dark vs. ByuN. The atmosphere in the arena that year seemed to be even more intense than during sOs vs. Jaedong or sOs vs. Life. I lost count of how many times I rewatched the minutes from the epic countdown to the start of the grand finals:
On October 06 2022 03:45 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: For me personally, it was Dark vs. ByuN. The atmosphere in the arena that year seemed to be even more intense than during sOs vs. Jaedong or sOs vs. Life. I lost count of how many times I rewatched the minutes from the epic countdown to the start of the grand finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2IlcS7AHxM&t=455s
I was there and it was absolutely epic. In hindsight the fact that I got to see Totalbiscuit and Incontrol cast together makes it that much better. The grand final atmosphere was electric, even Husky showed up and watched. Fire marshall wouldn't let anyone else in the arena. It's the only blizzcon i've been to so i'm biased, but whatever it was awesome.
Ojectively it has to be either Mvp vs NesTea or sOs vs Life. Or maybe sOs vs Jaedong.
Mvp and Nestea, the juggernaughts of their era, indisputably the best players of their race, and not only did they play BlizzCon, but they also played the GSL finals on the same event. That was peak sc2 hype, although many players are too new for that.
And then sOs vs Life. Also the best players in their era. One had won the world championship the year previous, and the other the year before. The last tournament of Heart of the Swarm. A crazy finals that went all the way to the last map. Incredible production in the big arena. And even though we dont talk about Life anymore, he was one of the most skillful players to play this game ( better than serral, Dark, Ragnarok). Very dinamic PvZ. It was incredible.
After that sc2 startd to decay. Anyone that says a Blizzcon after 2017 was simply too new to the game or too young during the WoL/HotS era to undersstand how hype those things were.
sOs vs Jaedong was amazing too. A crazy mad genious with sOs vs the indispoputed best Zerg player in BW, who was also THE ONLY BW Bonjwa to do well in sc2. HOWEVER.
I think it's either sOs vs Jaedong or Serral's win. Not only are they the only Blizzcons I actually remember but they also represent major shifts in the SC2 scene as a whole. In 2013 we saw kespa players make a big splash and in 2018 we saw the rise of the foreign scene.
That has to be $o$ vs Life for me, even though I had hoped for a different outcome. Two super aggressive players playing on the biggest of stage, you literally had no idea what would happen from early pools to proxy gates or cannon rushes to potential 40 minute standard macro games. I still get chills just thinking about it.
Serral being the first foreigner to take the crown was also very exciting, albeit I felt like it was the consensus that he is the best player on earth coming in to the tournament and it was sort of his tournament to lose. That would be my 2nd place.
3rd place probably one of the WoL ones with Nestea, MvP and MMA, even though I must say I barely remember any of them. Just that they were fun-