The Start of an Era: HotS

The best games ranking is a compromise between the opinions of several writers, ensuring that not even the writers are happy with the end result.



Context was weighed in. A game in the GSL finals would rank higher than if the exact same game had been played in the first round of Code A.



Only HotS Games have been included. Click here to check out the best Wings of Liberty games of 2013. Gumiho commands it!



TeamLiquid is not responsible for rage or rage related injuries suffered as a result of reading this game ranking.

The elfi vs. Life Honorable Mention Awards for Really Weird Games That Are Weird



The game would go on for another 10 minutes and 30 more SCVs would die.



I don't even know how this game makes sense.



The French eat frog legs, so why not Colossus legs?



If you know Kespa maps, you know this is totally standard.



Bisu: "No Hydras??"

The PartinG vs. MKP Award For Games That Are Memorable For The Wrong Reasons

2013 was certainly a year of drama. The WCS system came under fire, the Korean scene took blow after blow, and many beloved teams and players decided it was time to take their leave. But let's not let the drama overshadow one important fact: 2013 was a year of great games.At first we thought we could get away with a shorter list than in 2012, but as we reminisced on our favorite moments and tournaments, it became clear that we were doing Heart of the Swarm an injustice. The expansion had fixed the kinks in WoLBL-Infestor, and progamers had continued to elevate their play to higher levels. 2010 and 2011 were formative years. 2012 was a year of contrasts, where we saw both the best and worst StarCraft 2 could be. Cautiously, we can say 2013 was a year of maturity. It might be hard to tell with nostalgia glasses on, but never have there been so many consistently good games to watch. Things may not be perfect on the industry side, but the gameplay itself has never been better.Before we begin, here are some disclaimers:Oh, before we go on to the main list...After watching hundreds, if not thousands of games this year, some have remained fresh in our memories while others have become faint recollections. Though most great games are played at a high level, a game need not be particularly well played to be fun.We couldn't honestly call the following six games the 'best' of 2013, but they should still be watched. Some because we never saw anything quite like them before, others because of their historical context, and some games just for their utter lunacy. In honor of the king of bizarre games that are oddly memorable, these six games shall henceforth be known as the winners of the. These games may not have made the top 40, but we might remember them for longer than some of the games on the big list.You couldn't really blame HeroMarine for being bored out of his mind as he casted this game. People fell strictly into two camps as they watched HyuN run around the map and try to reestablish an economy for twenty minutes after a base trade: the people who thoughtand those who thoughtWatch this game (or don't) to find out which side you fall on!Back during the height of HellbaTvT, it was tough being an SCV. Two seconds away doing something, and boom, 20 SCV BBQ. It was soon nerfed, to the delight of Terran workers everywhere. This game will allow you to relive the trauma of the worst SCV slaughters in history. The game opened up with Hellions on both sides and transitioned into a mech vs. mech battle, with constant runbys, drops, and back and forth positional battles. Going on for over an hour with Akilon Wastes getting almost completely mined out, the two Terrans fought over the last remaining base to decide the outcome of the game. Combined, Ryung and TheSTC would lose over 150,000 worth of resources. Combined, they would lose 320 SCVs. Think about that for a second: each player lost about 160 supply worth of workers. Ouch.Some games are ridiculously good. Some games are just ridiculous. You'd never expect a game between Bly vs. Uzer to ever reach a list of the best games of the year, but this game hadand I'm not exaggerating. It saw every single Zerg building and unit built in a 30 minute game where no one went above 150 supply. It had Brood Lord and Ultralisk abductions, blinding clouds on Spine Crawlers, Ultralisk cleave killing Swarm Hosts without detection, fungals on Banelings and Mutas, Nydus Worms, and transfuses on everything. The only things we didn't get to see were Baneling landmines and drops, but I'm sure those would have happened as wel if there had been some more time. Rarely do we get to see ZvZ's that don't devolve into never-ending Roach wars, and this game showed that with a little creativity and a little insanity, even our least liked match-up can be a joy to watch.It takes a lot of balls to use a strategy that is universally panned by pros as useless. Mech vs. Protoss hasn't been viable since the beta and the Warhound, yet we still sometimes hear of players using it on ladder. That Blizzard has constantly tried to buff it and try to find a way to make it work, yet somehow is unable to, speaks volumes about how fragile the composition must be. This game was one of the few times that someone actually dared to use it in a high stakes match, and the results were... pretty funny.Opening with Hellions into more Hellions, into even more Hellions, Dayshi caught Harstem completely off guard, roasting a good number of Probes with his runbys. Harstem opted for a Stalker-Colossus composition which countered Dayshi's Hellions on paper, but instead Dayshi just surrounded around the army and burned it down with brute force and sheer numbers. The French Terran eventually transitioned into Tanks, while Harstem moved onto Immortals and Archons. That went exactly as you'd think it would. "glhf darling" indeed.Parmesan or Mozzarella? Between arguably the two most popular cheeses, I'd be hard pressed to choose only one. 6pool or 2rax? Well, apparently 6pool wins. Kespa maps have often resulted in odd games, but this one took the cheesecake. Both players decided to end things early, but Shine's cross scouting Overlord spotted Innovation's 2rax at the gold. Forced to abandon his plans and already with 1 rax in the middle of the map, Innovation did what any rational Terran would do: Float everything to the gold. Unfortunately for Innovation, whose lactose INntoLerance is well known, Shine simply built up a force on two bases and busted his makeshift base.One of the funniest rivalries in Brood War Bisu vs. Shine has no equivalent SC2. Ridiculed as a cheesy and mediocre player in BW, Shine had a tendency of knocking Bisu out of OSLs despite the latter being a far superior player.Their May 12 game on Bel'shir Vestige would break their tied record of 5-5, and would be their only meeting ever in SC2. And it would not disappoint. The game reached the 4-bases stage as both players were content to just sit back and relax, which was a surprise in and of itself. Things started to go crazy as Shine transitioned into Mutas after rushing for Ultralisks. A base trade ensued, leaving Bisu with his natural and Shine with a distant fourth base. Instead of feeling satisfied with the reset, however, Bisu pulled all his Probes to try and eliminate Shine, despite having 800 minerals in the bank. The fate of their rivalry came down to just a single building on either side.Just one final thing!In honor of the infamous disconnect game between PartinG and MarineKing that cost Startale the GSTL championship and finally got Blizzard to implement resume from replay a year too late, we've decided to single out the games from 2013 that we're going to remember for all the wrong reasons.The longest game in professional StarCraft 2 history. Don't watch it.The game that got IdrA fired.Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that.Going up against Polt on Daybreak, IdrA found himself in a half-map situation with a maxed out army of Ultralisks, Brood Lords, and Infestors, as well as several thousand minerals and gas in the bank. With the game looking like it could go on for a very long time, IdrA abruptly decided to quit the game after getting hit by a single seeker missile shot.Though it was a surprising move even for a player as infamous for surrendering early as IdrA, no one could predict the chain reaction his biggest ragequit would trigger. Becoming the target of even more intense scrutiny than usual, IdrA saw his completely unrelated but very unfortunately timed post become the center of attention. Combined with other behind the scenes factors that will never be disclosed in a million years, Evil Geniuses made the painful decision to cut ties with the first and biggest star of StarCraft 2.