I am trying to put together my personal playlist of greatest games in SC2 history out of my memory of watching this magnificent game for 13 years. You are welcome to check it out below.
(And honestly, TL.net should also do something like this after the GOAT list series)
Now that I take a look at what I had and man, that sure is quite a lot of TvZ in there..... but really for good reason. TvZ has been THE best non-mirror matchup for entertainment value for the entirety of SC2. Second most is probably PvT and TvT. Something about Terran's design just make their games so much fun to watch.
I am surprised to find not a whole lot of great PvZ games that's worthy of putting on an all time list from top of my head. I am looking for high level, evenly matched, back-and-forth and nail biting games or great comebacks. I found most of PvZ between top players either ends with a quick timing attack, or goes into painfully long turtle late game battles where two gigantic deathballs just dance around each other until one of them won, no very fun in my opinion. There are a lot of pretty decent PvZ games, but the actual great ones that fits my criteria are rare.
So far I have:
Kiwikaki vs Stephano (anyone remember this ancient classic?) Reynor vs Classic 2019 GSL Showtime vs Reynor Homestory Cup 23 Showtime vs Serral TSL9
There has to be some incredible Korean PvZ over the years that I missed right? Could someone help me here?
Life vs First G2: Brilliant, one of those wild games with unexpected outcome, but decently entertaining through out.
Classic vs Rogue G5: I get the symbolic significance of this game (one last protoss to prevent an all Zerg semifinals), but the game itself is one of those "successful timing attacks ends the game" which I am not too fond of.
Serral vs Stats G5: I think this one barely cracks the list, decently back and forth game, although I never understand why Serral never went for any spell casters after that successful mid-game engagement
HerO vs Jaedong: If one timing attack doesn't work, the second one will! Man the PvZ in those days...
On February 22 2024 02:45 Nasigil wrote: A reply to the games suggested so far:
Life vs First G2: Brilliant, one of those wild games with unexpected outcome, but decently entertaining through out.
Classic vs Rogue G5: I get the symbolic significance of this game (one last protoss to prevent an all Zerg semifinals), but the game itself is one of those "successful timing attacks ends the game" which I am not too fond of.
Serral vs Stats G5: I think this one barely cracks the list, decently back and forth game, although I never understand why Serral never went for any spell casters after that successful mid-game engagement
HerO vs Jaedong: If one timing attack doesn't work, the second one will! Man the PvZ in those days...
Man HerO has quite a few, that particular one was crazy though!
There was a short sweet spot before Zergs got that little bit better at the BL/Infestor style where HerO picked a few apart in long macro games, was quite fun.
On February 22 2024 02:45 Nasigil wrote: A reply to the games suggested so far:
Life vs First G2: Brilliant, one of those wild games with unexpected outcome, but decently entertaining through out.
Classic vs Rogue G5: I get the symbolic significance of this game (one last protoss to prevent an all Zerg semifinals), but the game itself is one of those "successful timing attacks ends the game" which I am not too fond of.
Serral vs Stats G5: I think this one barely cracks the list, decently back and forth game, although I never understand why Serral never went for any spell casters after that successful mid-game engagement
HerO vs Jaedong: If one timing attack doesn't work, the second one will! Man the PvZ in those days...
Man HerO has quite a few, that particular one was crazy though!
There was a short sweet spot before Zergs got that little bit better at the BL/Infestor style where HerO picked a few apart in long macro games, was quite fun.
Liquid HerO mostly gets forgotten these days but I will always respect him as a player that's truly ahead of his time. In his era the PvZ was all about Protoss turtling in 3 bases and go for that ultimate Colossi/Archon/Gateway deathball, and push out into Zerg for the win or lose. That or some two base all in.
HerO never just sits in his base, he was one of the first Protoss to really get out there with mass Phoenix harassments, Warp Prism harrassment, multiple prong Zealot run bys, etc. That was way before any balance buff to Warp Prisms and no one else used this unit at the time. I remember watching his game thinking "man if only all PvZ are played like this".