CranKy Ducklings Profile Blog Joined November 2017 139 Posts #1



Auld Quack Syne

2019 CranKy Events Report



by



by Yakuzaku

Light told me I don’t have 20/20 vision.





2019 marked the most ambitious year for the CranKy Ducklings yet.



After winning our first ever team league in 2018’s Oceanic Pond League, which despite the name isn’t region restricted.



Speaking of region restrictions, the Grand Platypus Open debuted as our first ever region specific, non MMR restricted tournament for the SEA/OCE region. Also India. And Hong Kong.



Whilst expanding our own operations, CranKy has also lent it’s broadcasting talent to other organisers, bringing English coverage to the otherwise locally isolated



But, we’ve not forgotten about what we started with, the









New faces throughout 2019 meant new regulars as well. Though most of the top 5 initially debuted in 2018, PotatoPleb made his first appearance in bringing his best no matter his form.



Coming in quite a bit later than PotatoPleb was contender for best name in a CranKy Event, Papapanda. Making his debut in every other SDO until the end of the year, racking up an impressive 13 sign ups in a row.



Among the returning competitors from 2018 was Tsuneo, not to be confused with Suno. Though the British Terran player lacks deep runs, they have been among the biggest wildcards in SDO, causing many an upset throughout the year.



Our very own League caster and ever a Splyce Boi (rip), Quirky has proven himself the most dedicated of the Ducklings as the only one to place in the top 5 with 15 sign ups. In addition to having the most sign ups, Quirky has also been the most consistent of Steelmold’s co-casters having casted the most CranKy events other than Steel himself, even casting weeklies he himself participated in either while waiting for matches or after elimination.



But among them all only one of 2018’s top 5 remains in the top 5 for 2019, AlphaX’s Nemesis of the Nerazim with 18 sign ups. Practically nothing deters Nem from a fun Friday evening of doing whatever build she feels if she can help it. Despite choosing not to play in MSO, Nemesis still stands with the most weeklies played period.















2019 was a bit of a rough year for Terran, but at the absolute height of competition that is the Sea Duckling Open, a few were able to distinguish themselves as beacons of hope in these trying times.



And none of them shone brighter than XenoBlaze, the second ever player to win the 5DO award. After his utter dominance towards the end of spring, XenoBlaze disappeared, leaving a power vacuum in the pond that many were quick to seize.



But as The Swarm flooded in led by an upstart by the name of esReveR, XenoBlaze knew what he had to do. Making a sudden reappearance in XenoBlaze ultimately cemented his position of best and greatest SDO Terran player of 2019 and perhaps in all of SDO.



In XenoBlaze’s absence, more often than not it fell to PotaoPleb to pick up the pieces and maintain the legacy of Terran dominance. Though falling short of a championship, PotatoPleb put up a heck of a performance with his aggressive in-your-face playstyle and sheer tenacity in every weekly he competed in.



On the flip side, Terran didn’t always need a saviour. In the early-mid months of 2019, CranKy events were plagued with the contemporarily dubbed, Terran Apocalypse. Kind of a short-sighted name now looking back.



Though XenoBlaze himself led the charge, he’d find redemption later by halting the onslaught of Zerg towards the final months of 2019. The same can’t be said for his fellow Terran Horseman, AionLeader.



AionLeader appeared and reappeared seemingly at random, with only four total sign ups in CranKy events. Regardless, the two SDOs he did play in were nothing short of domination with clean sweeps across the board, as if death itself entered the Challonge bracket.



But before all of that, before Terran was weak or dominant, EmBánGiày became the first Terran champion of 2019. Gritty and tenacious, EBG went through drastic changes in the span of a few weeks in the start of the year with one of the first great feats of the year’s SDO, his three finals in a row. Though unavailable for most of the rest of the year, we were still able to catch a glimpse of EBG’s scrappiness during the



Inconsistent, Terran in SDO was either extremely dominant or non-existent. But whether we were hoping for more or for less T players, those at the top of the food chain were some of the most exciting players of the year.









In XenoBlaze and esReveR duked it out in the Bo5 finals resulting in XenoBlaze’s 5DO and an end to esReveR’s championship streak. In esReveR becoming the first ever 6DO champion.



Walking down the royal road in up and comers in a tournament that was anyone’s game. In the new favourite, stomping on the hype behind former fan favourites. By SDO would only have one champion for a good while, and his name was esReveR. Despite being denied his four-peat, it didn’t take long for him to come back with another three-peat only two tournaments later.







The player who would have been the new Zerger King if not for esReveR, Papapanda, makes it out of 2019 with surprisingly only one championship. After an explosive entrance to SDO, Papapanda became the target of great expectations, though whether or not those expectations were reached is up to interpretation.



Utilising her signature mutalisk switch, February was marked by the intense yet short-lived rivalry between Sunokasuri and EBG. Showing off a plethora of new strategies and builds, Suno was able to claim one more championship shortly before graduating from SDO and an absence from CranKy events. At least for now (looks at Steel.)



Another graduate of SDO, the aggressively adaptable mLty made his mark at the start of the year, taking full advantage of his superior attacking instinct to utterly dominate the Bronze to Diamond tournament early in the year, mLty is not only the first Zerg champion of 2019, but the first SDO champion of 2019.



A stark contrast to GeoHen the World Chicken, the final champion of 2019. Making his debut late into the year, GeoHen was quick to make up for lost time playing in any and every event he could sign up for. Doing so proved to be great practice, with the already promising Roach Ranger gradually placing higher and higher before finally fulfilling his potential with that elusory championship in



Whether it was the hyper aggression of mLty, the cheeky cheeses of Papapanda or the defensive counter attacks of GeoHen, Zerg players in SDO have proven to be, if nothing else, distinct from one another, leaving SDO much richer in variety and entertainment.









While Terran was in a rough patch for most of the year, Protoss had arguably just as tough a time, and certainly so in SDO. Towards the end of the year, it seemed like the fate of Protoss in SDO was sealed and we could start wrapping everything up. That is until Tassad’s surprise breakthrough.



First debuting with a third place finish in defeated the rising titan esReveR 2-0 before making his first finals and championship.



In the weeks that followed, Tassad proved to be esReveR’s kryptonite, denying the Zerger King another four-peat to claim his own second championship, ending his year as one of the top Protoss players after coming out of nowhere.



Not all who make the top 5 hold championship titles, but among them both TheKyoJin and XenoDactyl show they have what it takes. Both known for being cheesy Protoss, TheKyojin often opts for Dark Templar play and mind games, with XenoDactyl being more of a student of Printf, adept at any and all forms of up in your face cannon rushes.



While capable of making deep runs, neither of them can really claim to deal as much cheddar as the three time SDO champion, StarDuck. 2019 was an interesting and eventful year for StarDuck. Getting back into Starcraft after an indefinite hiatus was the first step, but transitioning from Zerg to Protoss during what many consider the dark age of Zerg being unbeatable in ZvP.



But the age old adage still holds true, that if you’re better than your opponent, the match-up barely matters, and in picking up two more SDO championships back to back, before graduating to Masters league for the first time in his competitive career, StarDuck proved himself far above his competition.



Yet even StarDuck finds himself below the Matriarch of the Nerazim herself, Nemesis. Between playing in almost every SDO, adapting herself whenever stuck behind a wall and just having fun without stressing out much, it’s little wonder that Nem would stand as the top Protoss Player. The question is, I suppose, is anyone really surprised?



Distinguishing themselves in 2019, though we had far less Protoss titles compared to Terran and Zerg, it only made it all the more meaningful when we did get a Protoss champion or contender.









With the format change of MSO becoming fortnightly rather than monthly, more and more Masters players came out of the woodwork for a shot at that Bronze to M2 crown.



Among them, none were quite as enthusiastic as Emin, clocking in 13 MSOs, stopping only when he’d hit the <4.9K barrier preventing further participation.



Tied with Dennis the Eminus for most weeklies played, StarDuck managed to hit the lucky number with the same enthusiastic energy in the second half of the year, ramping up the sign ups after graduating from SDO.



From our own pond, Light_VIP and Voltacus hold yet another tie with 12 MSOs each. Though often needing to end their runs early due to admining or schedule conflicts, the competitive spirits burned bright and MSO becoming a lot richer with their participation.



That brings us to Papapanda, the only player on the list eligible for both MSO and SDO. With 11 MSO sign ups in addition to 13 SDOs, Papapanda ends 2019 with the most CranKy events played the entire year.















The Terran Apocalypse may have had its effects felt in the SDO, but the leading horsemen charged faster and further in MSO. Though as the saying goes, the brightest stars burn the fastest, and most of the list found themselves unable to compete as the year went on.



The first of the horsemen was XtremeProperAmazing, known better as XPA. A veteran of MSO, XPA made his debut in the first ever Bronze to 4.9k tournament held in 2018 with a semi-finals finish before shortly breaking the MMR limit, making himself ineligible to participate.



After a break from CranKy events and competing in general, XPA found himself within the boundaries of our competition once again. Despite an anti-climactic reappearance in Taldan, the German Terran player more than made up for it with a runner-up finish two weeks later, only to go beyond his record once again to claim the next two MSO championships back to back.



Speaking of German Terran players returning after a period of ineligibility only to become record breakers, Excessive Marines In Number, or simply, Emin, the top MSO Terran player of 2019 might not have made the back to back accomplishment of his comrade, but did set the record for most MSO championships by becoming the first ever three-time MSO champion, only to break his own record to become the first and, at the time of writing, only four-time MSO champion shortly after.



Though both players would find themselves breaking the MMR barrier, once again making them ineligible for at least three seasons, in those weeks where our two German champions led the charge of the Terran Apocalypse, they forged a legacy within the CranKy community not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. Especially with XPA’s end of the year show match against Yaku’s source for off the record information who’s name I cannot disclose. I can tell you that they’ve had a hard time competing in CranKy events, are from Israel and online handle is Welsh though. That and it’s on



Of the Terran players still eligible for the MSO, non have had quite the journey of Voltacus. After being marred by scheduling conflicts, early forfeits and general bad bracket luck, Volt’s highest place finish for the longest time was a runner-up early in the year.



But after rigorous coaching, grinding and Tibetan Zen meditation, Voltacus made a splash in the second to last MSO of the year to make another finals after dodging the jaws of elimination over and over again. In an invariably risky move in the name of time constraints, Volt requested a quicker Bo3 finals instead of the typical Bo5, a request his Zerg opponent ClassyKru was all too willing to agree with.



After staring down the clutches of defeat once again, Volt put his all into the ace match where he showcased his cleanest play yet to finally, since his debut in 2017, claim that long awaited CranKy championship.



Though not quite as storied as his British contemporary, AreZ the Brazilian late-comer ends his 2019 with the exact same result as Voltacus. Debuting as a new face in the summer wave of newcomers, AreZ first distinguished himself as one of the few Terran players in MSO completely dedicated to mech, and then by being a champion contender and new favourite to be taken seriously.



Finishing his debut just shy of the royal road, it didn’t take long for AreZ to finally clinch that MSO victory two tournaments later, before partaking in the traditional post-victory leave of absence. In the final MSO of the year, AreZ once again made an appearance with another top 4 finish just to remind everyone that he could still throw down with the best of them.



That brings us finally to the competitor that’s been with us since the very beginning, the brother of the brother of Dr.Brother, TerranLord.



Since his MSO victory in December of 2018, TerranLord’s time conflicts led to his absence in CranKy tournaments for the longest time until the summer of ‘19, where for one glorious season, TerranLord gave the fans what they’ve been craving for so long. Paradoxically becoming both a favourite and a wild-card, Lord proved himself able to take out any opponent on a given day, more often than not denying former champions another victory thanks to his methodological approach to the game.



Though Lord has since declared his retirement from Starcraft 2, his dedication to the game whether in the form of playing, casting or admining will always be remembered.



MSO in 2019 was a wild west ride where it seemed like anything could happen and anyone could beat anyone but we could always count on these players to perform up to or even exceed expectations.









Though for many 2019 will be remembered as the Year of Zerg, in MSO Zerg players didn’t fare quite as well, with champions few and far between and regulars never quite clinching that first placing. That brings us to esReveR, the only player in the top five with a championship.



As if it wasn’t enough to simply become the top rated champion of SDO ever, esReveR decided to claim an MSO as well just for good measure, forever cementing his legacy in Aquatic Bird history. All while still in Diamond-league.



Speaking of players making both lists in 2019, mLty returns for another top five placing. Adapting his play to new opponents, once mLty realised his “skill check” hyper-aggressive-until-they-can-hold-it style wasn’t going to work out anymore, mLty found a new hyper-greedy-until-I-can-throw-armies-in-their-general-direction-willy-nilly style.



Once he was able to combine the two with a little Korean bootcamp, mLty became a true terror stretching any opponent to their absolute limits. So terrifying in fact that other than his rival Emin or TerranLord, the thing that would take him down was the worst misfortune of breaking the 4.9K MMR barrier before he could win an MSO.



Outdoing himself from last year, our captain, admin, occasional caster, supplier of the prize and El Jefe Maximo, Light_VIP, moves up from the top SDO Zerg player of 2018 to the top MSO Zerg player of 2019.



In a strange turn of events, the fifth placing for MSO Zerg of the Year sees a three-way tie, with each player making their marks at different points of the year. Xil was

the first of them, vanishing just as suddenly as he appeared and looked to become a new regular favourite. Much later came XtinC, definitive vindication on the success of Facebook advertising. A consistent sign up in both MSO and GPO, XtinC takes the practice he can get from IEM qualifiers to strive for that MSO championship. Coming in right at the end of the year, ClassyKru could have very well become our most recent Royal Roader after tearing through his side of the bracket had it not been for Voltacus’ hunger for victory. Still, with a semi-finalist finish only one tournament later, ClassyKru has already become a new favourite going into 2020.



A new Kongtender has also arisen in the form of Golo. After a rough start in SDO, Golo came back for mLty, AreZ and StarDuck to face Salivanth in the finals. It soon became clear that this was no fluke by making to the finals of MSO two more times consecutively.



For the most part, MSO Zerg was in a strange position in 2019, lacking the quantity of champions like Terran or the dominant players of Protoss. But I prefer to see it as a build up for what these players could achieve in 2020.









Though overshadowed by the dominance of Terran as the year went on, early in 2019 MSO was very much the Protoss playground with the first quarter seeing only Protoss champions.



The first of them was Salivanth, the top MSO player of 2018. Becoming the first two time champion in MSO history, Salivanth took internet issues as an opportunity for a break from competition. Returning in August for



After Salivanth opened the year for MSO, his runner-up Saxy would go on to claim his first MSO trophy in the next tournament. Previously seen as among the lower end of the top tier, able to both take out or be taken out by any opponent, Saxy broke that consensus after sweeping the bracket with only a single dropped map. A feat that I like to imagine convinced SC2Swarm to approve him for mercenary status in team leagues.



Exemplifying the fact that Protoss had a rough time in MSO this year, ieLLiMo signed up only twice throughout 2019 and ended with a second placing as their highest finish, yet ends the year as the fifth highest placing Protoss player, who for all we know could have shot through the ranking if we saw more of them.



Signing up now and again throughout the year, ReaLiTy finally made his mark by winning the



Yet all of them pale in comparison to the unexpected titan that is StarDuck. After two years stuck in Diamond 2, the former Zerg player not only dominated SDO upon his return and transition to Protoss, but for the first time found himself promoted to Masters league and locked out of SDO. StarDuck may have been already making a splash with several semifinal finishes, but upon his restriction to MSO, ramped up his improvement to hit the finals three times in a row, winning one of them along the way.



Being the least represented race can be tough, but with players like these to pin your hopes on, it’s that much easier to rest assured.









For the first time for CranKy Ducklings, a non-MMR restricted tournament was introduced. For another first for CranKy, this tournament also, as of the time writing, is the only region restricted tournament. For the SEA and Oceania regions, the Grand Platypus Open became a new weekly tournament to encourage growth in the region and sustainability for professional players.



And much like the oceans of Oceania, GPO was home to a terrifying predator. Ruthless and efficient, Demi the Shark of India dominated the tournament waters with his mutalisks like none other.







Not to be overshadowed by his teammate in OSC, Vivid the Piranha showed off his cunning time and time again, often being the one to utilise Demi’s strategies to great success, even against the Shark himself. Yet if he could hold the tide long enough to make it to the finals, he’d find himself devoured all the same by the jaws that swallowed many others.



Another contender to challenge Demi’s reign, JusticeSimon’s regular sign up rate and often times high placings made him a somewhat unexpected favourite, ending 2019 as the top GPO Protoss player. He even found himself unwittingly on the other end of an impromptu showmatch against the Shark in



The greatest threat to Demi manifested itself in the form Australian Terran player, Azure, creating the biggest rivalry in GPO and perhaps the SEA/OCE scene in quite a while. Pulling out all the stops, Azure utilised every strategy, build and unit composition he could muster throughout every weekly, being the one closest to ending the Zerg player’s reign on multiple occasions, even being the one to personally send him to the lower bracket a few times.



Each time it looked like the Shark had met his match, Demi reversed his fortunes, utilising map choices, cheeses and mind games to return from the depths for another victory in his championship streak. Yet in



Though in a truly bizarre twist of fate, in the week that featured both the highly anticipated RiSky’s debut and Azure’s victory over Demi in the semi-finals, it was Bistork that was crowned the first new GPO champion.



In hindsight, this actually becomes less and less of a surprise, Bistork, while not quite as consistent as JusticeSimon, was still among the favourites of Protoss. Thanks to his aggressively unpredictable playstyle he was decisively the top player in Hong Kong and while Azure had historically gotten the upper hand on the Cantonese Protoss player, a new patch and a lot of practice time saw Bistork find a solution to dominating PvT.



After a nearly uncontested G14 streak, Demi’s elimination and Bistork’s championship could mark the beginning of a completely new environment for GPO with more and more players proving themselves in 2020. Or, the Shark could rise from the depths once again, looking to break another record.









Once again, despite the time zone difference, SDO was utterly dominated by participants from the USA. Despite the high sign up rate, it’s interesting to note that all eight gold medals were won by only two players, mLty winning two early in the year and esReveR winning six towards the end, though ReaLiTy and TheFetus did bring home a silver each, making this clear cut victory even more dominant.



On the flip side, France understandably comes out with a significantly lower participant list, but thanks to XenoBlaze who won all of their medals, makes it in the top five as the runner-up nation of 2019.



Another country making their debut, South Korea, surprisingly has the lowest participant count in the top five, despite the time zone lining up and scheduling even using KST. But what Korea lacked in quantity it made up for in quality with both medalists AionLeader and PotatoPleb making it in the top Terran list.



Dropping down a peg from last year, I didn’t even think Germany would make the top five until Tassad popped up at the end of the year to single handedly deny Taiwan and Vietnam a place in the top countries list by winning a pair of championships and a runner-up right as the year was coming to a close. Though denying victories is kind of Tassad’s thing, considering the fact that he had twice ended esReveR’s championship streaks, assuring that America would make it out of 2019 with eight golds instead of ten.



While Germany dropped a place, Australia fell even lower with half the amount of participants in 2019 compared to 2018, though part of that could be the fact that many Aussie regulars in 2018 promoted to Masters league before 2019 even began. While StarDuck kept the Green and Gold afloat with his two championships, once he’d been promoted to Masters league, it seemed like no one was able to take his place, though StarDuck was able to bring his play to represent Australia in MSO.









Once again, owing to the fact that MSO became fortnightly rather than monthly, we finally had enough data to determine not only which players to take note of, but countries as well. And one thing to take note of is the complete 180 from Australia and Germany, going from the bottom of SDO’s top five to the very top of MSO.



As alluded to earlier, many of 2018’s Australian regulars in SDO had promoted to Masters league and brought their skills and plays with them. Among the champions this would include the likes of Saxy and StarDuck, with Light_VIP contributing to the runner-ups. Along with a few gold medals from Salivanth and Dom, Australia was neck and neck with Germany for most of the year.



With fewer players than Australia, Germany had been carried by the likes of Emin and XPA for gold as well as Xil and Golo for silver. With their heavy hitters out of the picture as a result of exceeding the MMR barrier of 4.9K, a tie seemed like the probable outcome until JKM swung the advantage back to Deutschesland with just one more championship for the Vaterland in



While not quite as dominant in MSO than in SDO, the US was still among the highest participating countries in 2019, and put up an enviable performance thanks to the likes of SDO stars mLty and esReveR with Taldan, Cerdoken and ReaLiTy snatching up a few championships to put America in a solid third place.



With a much lesser roster of players than their cousins across the Atlantic, players from the UK put up the best of the best of each race in Molten, Quaterno and Voltacus bringing home a gold medal each, with Volt achieving another silver just for good measure.



This brings us to Colombia, with merely three participants and only a single medalist. Though Colombia is perhaps the only nation that was truly carried by one player, their champion, Juniba, for the two weeks he’d played was among the top tier in his brackets, with a near flawless record and an aura of untouchability.









When creating the SEA/OCE restricted tournament, the question was brought up about several countries that were nearby yet didn’t quite fall into the category. For example, Taiwan was brought up since it is a part of the Asia Pacific, however ended up excluded as there already exists a sizeable



In an ironic way, it’s a little funny that the two disputed countries we did end up including due to a lack of respective national scenes came to top the list, India and Hong Kong.



India is pretty obvious. Despite being their only national representative, Demi completely dominated the weekly tournament fourteen times in a row. Ironically, the highest profile Indian Starcraft tournament in 2019 featuring a $10000 prize pool excluded Demi from the invitational. With that in mind, it isn’t difficult to understand Demi’s drive and motivation in the $30 weekly event.



With twice the amount of participants than India, it’s practically a miracle that Hong Kong makes the list at all, let alone as the second best performing country. While the pair of silvers achieved by Bistork and GogojOey were enough to put the canton on the map, Bistork’s miracle run in the final event of the year not only boosted his country’s ranking from the bottom of the list, but for many settled the dispute on who exactly was the best player from Hong Kong.



Looking for a new weekly tournament for the region after many others were discontinued, Australia accounted for the highest number of sign ups. From Pezz to Oreo to StarDuck, players of all levels participated for practice, a shot at some prize money or just to end the week by mingling with other members of the scene. Among them, Azure decisively ranks the highest with five silver medals and an overall strong showing throughout the tournament’s existence. A few more medals from Vivid and Oreo meant that Australia confidently sits at the third placing.



A bit of a sleeping giant in the scene, Vietnam produced a fair amount of eager players looking for a warm up before the MeomaikA, but JusticeSimon, who had usually found himself under his countrymen’s shadow. Other than Simon, Uply was the other Vietnamese player that brought home a silver medal, but while neither player was able to crack the championship in 2019, they were able to take their abilities to Ao Dai only a few hours after GPO, where they’re both regarded as among the top tier being two out of only three players to win the national event.









After rebranding, recruitment and results, Alpha X makes it out of 2019 as the top clan of the year, dethroning CranKy Ducklings by no slim margin.



Previously known as Psionic Aftermath, Alpha X had long been regarded as CranKy’s sister clan due to the focus on tournament organisation and content creation, but when it comes to sheer logistics, the Ducklings just can’t compete.



Speaking of organisation that took a mighty blow in competitive results this year. Through a mixture of personal life, retirements and becoming more involved behind the scenes, less and less members of CranK’s fanclub participated as regularly as in 2018. Despite that, the consistent participation of Quirky and DallyCat along with the not so consistent participation of Yakuzaku meant that CranKy Ducklings stayed afloat as the second highest ranking clan of 2019.



Barely losing to CranKy by a margin of only ten points, Platinum Heroes makes it on the list thanks to Papapanda’s nine whole top four finishes, including his championship and four runner-ups. But Papapanda alone couldn’t put Platinum Heroes in third place, which is where Magnath, vsep and Eleven come in. While never quite placing as highly as their Taiwanese teammate, it was after their eliminations did they display how close knit the team is, cheering as hard as they could in Twitch chat and providing support in between games.



But it is definitely possible to put your clan on the list alone, and both esReveR and XenoBlaze proved it for Winter Gaming Ladder Heroes and FairLight respectively. While technically esReveR didn’t participate alone, Reignandpals having a brief hot streak early in the year before exceeding MMR limits, he did account for the vast majority of points accumulated by WGLH with his six championships and nine total top four finishes. XenoBlaze though, was literally the only representation from FairLight throughout 2019, accumulating 56 points across five championships, a runner-up and a semi-final finish. It’s perhaps a good thing then, that these clans had their sole representatives be the most dominant players in SDO history.





And so that wraps up 2019’s CranKy events. Though the future remains uncertain, with concerns over whether or not amateur events will continue due to





Writing: Yakuzaku | Proofreading: Light_VIP & Steelmold | Editing: Kuro





More From CranKy Ducklings







Light told me I don’t have 20/20 vision.2019 marked the most ambitious year for the CranKy Ducklings yet.After winning our first ever team league in 2018’s Validity Team League 3 , the time had come to create even more spreadsheets with the, which despite the name isn’t region restricted.Speaking of region restrictions, thedebuted as our first ever region specific, non MMR restricted tournament for the SEA/OCE region. Also India. And Hong Kong.Whilst expanding our own operations, CranKy has also lent it’s broadcasting talent to other organisers, bringing English coverage to the otherwise locally isolated Sentimiento Latino and Vietnam Team League with more to come in 2020.But, we’ve not forgotten about what we started with, the Sea Duckling Open and the Master Swan Open . Changing the format to have SDO alternate weekly with MSO, also meant a change in reports to have seasons making up six weeks of competition. Each season had their awards, their stories and their themes, but it’s time to compile them all into one single report.New faces throughout 2019 meant new regulars as well. Though most of the top 5 initially debuted in 2018,made his first appearance in SDO #52 back in February. Since then PotatoPleb has filled up a good percentage of Kuro’s sign up spreadsheet, using the tournament and his opponents as practiceComing in quite a bit later than PotatoPleb was contender for best name in a CranKy Event,. Making his debut in SDO #63 in June, Papapanda had already missed half of the Diamond capped weeklies, but he made up for it by competing in, racking up an impressive 13 sign ups in a row.Among the returning competitors from 2018 was, not to be confused with Suno. Though the British Terran player lacks deep runs, they have been among, causing many an upset throughout the year.Our very own League caster and ever a Splyce Boi (rip),has proven himselfas the only one to place in the top 5 with 15 sign ups. In addition to having the most sign ups, Quirky has also beenhaving casted the most CranKy events other than Steel himself, even casting weeklies he himself participated in either while waiting for matches or after elimination.But among them all, AlphaX’sof the Nerazim with 18 sign ups. Practically nothing deters Nem from a fun Friday evening of doing whatever build she feels if she can help it. Despite choosing not to play in MSO, Nemesis still stands with the most weeklies played period.2019 was a bit of a, but at the absolute height of competition that is the Sea Duckling Open, a few were able to distinguish themselves as beacons of hope in these trying times.And none of them shone brighter than. After his utter dominance towards the end of spring, XenoBlaze disappeared, leaving a power vacuum in the pond that many were quick to seize.But as The Swarm flooded in led by an upstart by the name ofesReveR, XenoBlaze knew what he had to do. Making ain SDO #70 , he cleaved through the competition facing his would be usurper not once, but twice in the first and final match of the double bracket. In a gruelling best of five,In XenoBlaze’s absence, more often than not it fell toto pick up the pieces and maintain the legacy of Terran dominance. Though falling short of a championship, PotatoPleb put up a heck of a performance with hisand sheer tenacity in every weekly he competed in.On the flip side, Terran didn’t always need a saviour. In the early-mid months of 2019, CranKy events were plagued with the contemporarily dubbed, Terran Apocalypse. Kind of a short-sighted name now looking back.Though XenoBlaze himself led the charge, he’d find redemption later by halting the onslaught of Zerg towards the final months of 2019. The same can’t be said for his fellow Terran Horseman,AionLeader.appeared and reappeared seemingly at random, with only four total sign ups in CranKy events. Regardless, the two SDOs he did play in werewith clean sweeps across the board, as if death itself entered the Challonge bracket.But before all of that, before Terran was weak or dominant,. Gritty and tenacious, EBG went through drastic changes in the span of a few weeks in the start of the year with one of the first great feats of the year’s SDO, his. Though unavailable for most of the rest of the year, we were still able to catch a glimpse of EBG’s scrappiness during the Vietnam Team League when he played for Dirty Cheeser.Inconsistent, Terran in SDO was either. But whether we were hoping for more or for less T players, those at the top of the food chain were some of the most exciting players of the year.In SDO #70 XenoBlaze andesReveR duked it out in the Bo5 finals resulting in XenoBlaze’s 5DO and an end to esReveR’s championship streak. In SDO #74 , the two had a rematch resulting inWalking down the royal road in SDO #67 , esReveR established himself as one of thein a tournament that was anyone’s game. In SDO #68 , esReveR established himself as, stomping on the hype behind former fan favourites. By SDO#69 , it became clear that. Despite being denied his four-peat, it didn’t take long for him to come back with another three-peat only two tournaments later.The player who would have been the new Zerger King if not for esReveR,, makes it out of 2019 with surprisingly only one championship. After an explosive entrance to SDO, Papapanda became, though whether or not those expectations were reached is up to interpretation.Utilising her, February was marked by the intense yet short-lived rivalry betweenandEBG. Showing off a plethora of new strategies and builds, Suno was able to claimand an absence from CranKy events. At least for now (looks at Steel.)Another graduate of SDO, the aggressively adaptablemade his mark at the start of the year, taking full advantage of histo utterly dominate the Bronze to Diamond tournament early in the year, mLty is not only the first Zerg champion of 2019, but the first SDO champion of 2019.A stark contrast tothe World Chicken, the final champion of 2019. Making his, GeoHen was quick to make up for lost timesign up for. Doing so proved to be great practice, with the already promising Roach Ranger gradually placing higher and higher beforewith that elusory championship in SDO #76 Whether it was the hyper aggression of mLty, the cheeky cheeses of Papapanda or the defensive counter attacks of GeoHen, Zerg players in SDO have proven to be, if nothing else, distinct from one another, leaving SDO much richer in variety and entertainment.While Terran was in a rough patch for most of the year,, and certainly so in SDO. Towards the end of the year, it seemed like the fate of Protoss in SDO was sealed and we could start wrapping everything up. That is untilFirst debuting with a third place finish in SDO #68 , Tassad then took a leave of absence barely a twinkle in the eyes of SDO. But all of a sudden, in the final weeks of 2019, Tassad showed up again to sweep through the bracket and in a massive upset,esReveR 2-0 before making his first finals and championship.In the weeks that followed, Tassad proved to be esReveR’s kryptonite, denying the Zerger King another four-peat to claim his own second championship, ending his year as one of the top Protoss players after coming out of nowhere.Not all who make the top 5 hold championship titles, but among them bothandshow they have what it takes. Both known for being cheesy Protoss, TheKyojin often opts for, with XenoDactyl being more of a student of Printf, adept atWhile capable of making deep runs, neither of them can really claim to deal as much cheddar as the. 2019 was an interesting and eventful year for StarDuck. Getting back into Starcraft after an indefinite hiatus was the first step, but transitioning from Zerg to Protoss during what many consider the dark age of Zerg being unbeatable in ZvP.But the age old adage still holds true, that if you’re better than your opponent, the match-up barely matters, and in picking up, before graduating to Masters league for the first time in his competitive career, StarDuck proved himself far above his competition.Yet even StarDuck finds himself below. Between playing in almost every SDO, adapting herself whenever stuck behind a wall and just having fun without stressing out much, it’s little wonder that Nem would stand as the top Protoss Player. The question is, I suppose, is anyone really surprised?Distinguishing themselves in 2019, though we had far less Protoss titles compared to Terran and Zerg, it only made it all the more meaningful when we did get a Protoss champion or contender.With the format change of MSO becoming fortnightly rather than monthly, more and more Masters players came out of the woodwork for a shot at that Bronze to M2 crown.Among them, none were quite as enthusiastic as, clocking in 13 MSOs, stopping only when he’d hit the <4.9K barrier preventing further participation.Tied with Dennis the Eminus for most weeklies played,managed to hit the lucky number with the same enthusiastic energy in the second half of the year, ramping up the sign ups after graduating from SDO.From our own pond,andhold yet another tie with 12 MSOs each. Though often needing to end their runs early due to admining or schedule conflicts, the competitive spirits burned bright and MSO becoming a lot richer with their participation.That brings us to, the only player on the list eligible for both MSO and SDO. With 11 MSO sign ups in addition to 13 SDOs,The Terran Apocalypse may have had its effects felt in the SDO, but the leading horsemen charged faster and further in MSO. Though as the saying goes, the brightest stars burn the fastest, and most of the list found themselves unable to compete as the year went on.The first of the horsemen was XtremeProperAmazing, known better as. A veteran of MSO, XPAheld in 2018 with a semi-finals finish before shortly breaking the MMR limit, making himself ineligible to participate.After a break from CranKy events and competing in general, XPA found himself within the boundaries of our competition once again. Despite an anti-climactic reappearance in MSO #13 , taken out early by eventual championTaldan, the German Terran player more than made up for it with a runner-up finish two weeks later, only to go beyond his record once again to claim the nextSpeaking of German Terran players returning after a period of ineligibility only to become record breakers, Excessive Marines In Number, or simply,might not have made the back to back accomplishment of his comrade, but did set the record for most MSO championships by becoming the, only to break his own record to become the first and, at the time of writing,shortly after.Though both players would find themselves breaking the MMR barrier, once again making them ineligible for at least three seasons, in those weeks where our two German champions led the charge of the Terran Apocalypse, they forged a legacy within the CranKy community not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. Especially with XPA’s end of the year show match against Yaku’s source for off the record information who’s name I cannot disclose. I can tell you that they’ve had a hard time competing in CranKy events, are from Israel and online handle is Welsh though. That and it’s on Liquidpedia Of the Terran players still eligible for the MSO, non have had quite the journey of. After being marred by scheduling conflicts, early forfeits and general bad bracket luck, Volt’s highest place finish for the longest time was a runner-up early in the year.But after rigorous coaching, grinding and Tibetan Zen meditation, Voltacus made a splash in the second to last MSO of the year to make another finals after dodging the jaws of elimination over and over again. In an invariably risky move in the name of time constraints, Volt requested a quicker Bo3 finals instead of the typical Bo5, a request his Zerg opponentClassyKru was all too willing to agree with.After staring down the clutches of defeat once again, Volt put his all into the ace match where he showcased his cleanest play yet to finally, since his debut in 2017,Though not quite as storied as his British contemporary,the Brazilian late-comer ends his 2019 with the exact same result as Voltacus. Debuting as a new face in the summer wave of newcomers, AreZ first distinguished himself as one of the few Terran players in MSO, and then by being a champion contender and new favourite to be taken seriously.Finishing his debut just shy of the royal road, it didn’t take long for AreZ to finally clinch that MSO victory two tournaments later, before partaking in the traditional post-victory leave of absence. In the final MSO of the year, AreZ once again made an appearance with another top 4 finish just to remind everyone that he could still throw down with the best of them.That brings us finally to the competitor that’s been with us since the very beginning, the brother of the brother of Dr.Brother,Since his MSO victory in December of 2018, TerranLord’s time conflicts led to his absence in CranKy tournaments for the longest time until the summer of ‘19, where for one glorious season, TerranLord gave the fans what they’ve been craving for so long. Paradoxically becoming, Lord proved himself able to take out any opponent on a given day, more often than not denying former champions another victory thanks to his methodological approach to the game.Though Lord has since declared his retirement from Starcraft 2, his dedication to the game whether in the form of playing, casting or admining will always be remembered.MSO in 2019 was a wild west ride where it seemed like anything could happen and anyone could beat anyone but we could always count on these players to perform up to or even exceed expectations.Though for many 2019 will be remembered as the Year of Zerg, in MSO Zerg players didn’t fare quite as well, with champions few and far between and regulars never quite clinching that first placing. That brings us to, the only player in the top five with a championship.As if it wasn’t enough to simply become, esReveR decided tojust for good measure, forever cementing his legacy in Aquatic Bird history. All while still in Diamond-league.Speaking of players making both lists in 2019,returns for another top five placing. Adapting his play to new opponents, once mLty realised his “skill check” hyper-aggressive-until-they-can-hold-it style wasn’t going to work out anymore, mLty found a new hyper-greedy-until-I-can-throw-armies-in-their-general-direction-willy-nilly style.Once he was able to combine the two with a little Korean bootcamp, mLty became a true terror stretching any opponent to their absolute limits. So terrifying in fact that other than his rivalEmin orTerranLord, the thing that would take him down was the worst misfortune of breaking the 4.9K MMR barrier before he could win an MSO.Outdoing himself from last year, our captain, admin, occasional caster, supplier of the prize and El Jefe Maximo,, moves up from the top SDO Zerg player of 2018 to the top MSO Zerg player of 2019.In a strange turn of events, the fifth placing for MSO Zerg of the Year sees a three-way tie, with each player making their marks at different points of the year.wasthe first of them, vanishing just as suddenly as he appeared and looked to become a new regular favourite. Much later came, definitive vindication on the success of Facebook advertising. A consistent sign up in both MSO and GPO, XtinC takes the practice he can get from IEM qualifiers to strive for that MSO championship. Coming in right at the end of the year,could have very well become our most recent Royal Roader after tearing through his side of the bracket had it not been for Voltacus’ hunger for victory. Still, with a semi-finalist finish only one tournament later, ClassyKru has already become a new favourite going into 2020.A new Kongtender has also arisen in the form of. After a rough start in SDO, Golo came back for MSO #24 only a week later to pull off what we thought was a miracle run defeating the likes ofmLty,AreZ andStarDuck to faceSalivanth in the finals. It soon became clear that this was no fluke by making to the finals of MSO two more times consecutively.For the most part, MSO Zerg was in a strange position in 2019, lacking the quantity of champions like Terran or the dominant players of Protoss. But I prefer to see it as a build up for what these players could achieve in 2020.Though overshadowed by the dominance of Terran as the year went on, early in 2019 MSO was very much the Protoss playground with the first quarter seeing only Protoss champions.The first of them was, the top MSO player of 2018. Becoming, Salivanth took internet issues as an opportunity for a break from competition. Returning in August for MSO #24 , Salivanth proved himself no forgotten legend, but as the most feared opponent in an MSO bracket he once and again was before claiming his third MSO championship.After Salivanth opened the year for MSO, his runner-upwould go on to claim his first MSO trophy in the next tournament. Previously seen as among the lower end of the top tier, able to both take out or be taken out by any opponent, Saxy broke that consensus after sweeping the bracket with only a single dropped map. A feat that I like to imagine convinced SC2Swarm to approve him for mercenary status in team leagues.Exemplifying the fact that Protoss had a rough time in MSO this year,signed up only twice throughout 2019 and ended with a second placing as their highest finish, yet ends the year as the fifth highest placing Protoss player, who for all we know could have shot through the ranking if we saw more of them.Signing up now and again throughout the year,finally made his mark by winning the final MSO of 2019 after an unusual yet highly amusing finals, utilising his stargate heavy playstyle to close the year the way it opened.Yet all of them pale in comparison to the unexpected titan that is. After two years stuck in Diamond 2, the former Zerg player not only dominated SDO upon his return and transition to Protoss, but for the first time found himself promoted to Masters league and locked out of SDO. StarDuck may have been already making a splash with several semifinal finishes, but upon his restriction to MSO, ramped up his improvement to hit the finals three times in a row, winning one of them along the way.Being the least represented race can be tough, but with players like these to pin your hopes on, it’s that much easier to rest assured.For the first time for CranKy Ducklings, a non-MMR restricted tournament was introduced. For another first for CranKy, this tournament also, as of the time writing, is the only region restricted tournament. For the SEA and Oceania regions, the Grand Platypus Open became a new weekly tournament to encourage growth in the region and sustainability for professional players.And much like the oceans of Oceania, GPO was home to a terrifying predator. Ruthless and efficient,waters with his mutalisks like none other.Not to be overshadowed by his teammate in OSC,showed off his cunning time and time again, often being the one to utilise Demi’s strategies to great success, even against the Shark himself. Yet if he could hold the tide long enough to make it to the finals, he’d find himself devoured all the same by the jaws that swallowed many others.Another contender to challenge Demi’s reign,’s regular sign up rate and often times high placings made him a somewhat unexpected favourite, ending 2019 as. He even found himself unwittingly on the other end of an impromptu showmatch against the Shark in GPO #10 . But each time JusticeSimon looked like he was about to make himself a bowl of shark’s fin soup, Demi found a way to prevail in the end, turning him into just another snack for his undefeated streak.The greatest threat to Demi manifested itself in the form Australian Terran player,, creating the biggest rivalry in GPO and perhaps the SEA/OCE scene in quite a while. Pulling out all the stops, Azure utilised every strategy, build and unit composition he could muster throughout every weekly, being the one closest to ending the Zerg player’s reign on multiple occasions, even being the one to personally send him to the lower bracket a few times.Each time it looked like the Shark had met his match, Demi reversed his fortunes, utilising map choices, cheeses and mind games to return from the depths for another victory in his championship streak. Yet in GPO #15 , Azure had finally harpooned the Shark for good after a gruelling Bo3 in the Semifinals, turning this once one-sided rivalry a lot more even.Though in a truly bizarre twist of fate, in the week that featured both the highly anticipatedRiSky’s debut and Azure’s victory over Demi in the semi-finals, it wasthat was crowned the first new GPO champion.In hindsight, this actually becomes less and less of a surprise, Bistork, while not quite as consistent as JusticeSimon, was still among the favourites of Protoss. Thanks to his aggressively unpredictable playstyle he was decisively the top player in Hong Kong and while Azure had historically gotten the upper hand on the Cantonese Protoss player, a new patch and a lot of practice time saw Bistork find a solution to dominating PvT.After a nearly uncontested G14 streak, Demi’s elimination and Bistork’s championship could mark the beginning of a completely new environment for GPO with more and more players proving themselves in 2020. Or, the Shark could rise from the depths once again, looking to break another record.Once again, despite the time zone difference, SDO was utterly. Despite the high sign up rate, it’s interesting to note that all eight gold medals were won by only two players,mLty winning two early in the year andesReveR winning six towards the end, thoughReaLiTy andTheFetus did bring home a silver each, making this clear cut victory even more dominant.On the flip side,understandably comes out with a significantly lower participant list, but thanks toXenoBlaze who won all of their medals, makes it in the top five as the runner-up nation of 2019.Another country making their debut,, surprisingly has the lowest participant count in the top five, despite the time zone lining up and scheduling even using KST. But what Korea lacked in quantity it made up for in quality with both medalistsAionLeader andPotatoPleb making it in the top Terran list.Dropping down a peg from last year, I didn’t even thinkwould make the top five untilTassad popped up at the end of the year to single handedly deny Taiwan and Vietnam a place in the top countries list by winning a pair of championships and a runner-up right as the year was coming to a close. Though denying victories is kind of Tassad’s thing, considering the fact that he had twice endedesReveR’s championship streaks, assuring that America would make it out of 2019 with eight golds instead of ten.While Germany dropped a place,fell even lower with half the amount of participants in 2019 compared to 2018, though part of that could be the fact that many Aussie regulars in 2018 promoted to Masters league before 2019 even began. WhileStarDuck kept the Green and Gold afloat with his two championships, once he’d been promoted to Masters league, it seemed like no one was able to take his place, though StarDuck was able to bring his play to represent Australia in MSO.Once again, owing to the fact that MSO became fortnightly rather than monthly, we finally had enough data to determine not only which players to take note of, but countries as well. And one thing to take note of is the complete 180 fromand, going from the bottom of SDO’s top five to the very top of MSO.As alluded to earlier, many of 2018’s Australian regulars in SDO had promoted to Masters league and brought their skills and plays with them. Among the champions this would include the likes ofSaxy andStarDuck, withLight_VIP contributing to the runner-ups. Along with a few gold medals fromSalivanth andDom, Australia was neck and neck with Germany for most of the year.With fewer players than Australia, Germany had been carried by the likes ofEmin andXPA for gold as well asXil andGolo for silver. With their heavy hitters out of the picture as a result of exceeding the MMR barrier of 4.9K, a tie seemed like the probable outcome untilJKM swung the advantage back to Deutschesland with just one more championship for the Vaterland in MSO #31 While not quite as dominant in MSO than in SDO,was still among the highest participating countries in 2019, and put up an enviable performance thanks to the likes of SDO starsmLty andesReveR withTaldan,Cerdoken andReaLiTy snatching up a few championships to put America in a solid third place.With a much lesser roster of players than their cousins across the Atlantic, players from theput up the best of the best of each race inMolten,Quaterno andVoltacus bringing home a gold medal each, with Volt achieving another silver just for good measure.This brings us to, with merely three participants and only a single medalist. Though Colombia is perhaps the only nation that was truly carried by one player, their champion,Juniba, for the two weeks he’d played was among the top tier in his brackets, with a near flawless record and an aura of untouchability.When creating the SEA/OCE restricted tournament, the question was brought up about several countries that were nearby yet didn’t quite fall into the category. For example, Taiwan was brought up since it is a part of the Asia Pacific, however ended up excluded as there already exists a sizeable Taiwanese SC2 scene In an ironic way, it’s a little funny that the two disputed countries we did end up including due to a lack of respective national scenes came to top the list, India and Hong Kong.is pretty obvious. Despite being their only national representative,Demi completely dominated the weekly tournament. Ironically, the highest profile Indian Starcraft tournament in 2019 featuring a $10000 prize pool excluded Demi from the invitational. With that in mind, it isn’t difficult to understand Demi’s drive and motivation in the $30 weekly event.With twice the amount of participants than India, it’s practically a miracle thatmakes the list at all, let alone as the second best performing country. While the pair of silvers achieved byBistork andGogojOey were enough to put the canton on the map, Bistork’s miracle run in the final event of the year not only boosted his country’s ranking from the bottom of the list, but for many settled the dispute on who exactly was the best player from Hong Kong.Looking for a new weekly tournament for the region after many others were discontinued,accounted for the highest number of sign ups. FromPezz toOreo toStarDuck, players of all levels participated for practice, a shot at some prize money or just to end the week by mingling with other members of the scene. Among them,Azure decisively ranks the highest with five silver medals and an overall strong showing throughout the tournament’s existence. A few more medals fromVivid andOreo meant that Australia confidently sits at the third placing.A bit of a sleeping giant in the scene,produced a fair amount of eager players looking for a warm up before the Ao Dai Weekly . Somewhat surprisingly, the biggest contributor wasn’t the highly regarded Maru-slayer,MeomaikA, butJusticeSimon, who had usually found himself under his countrymen’s shadow. Other than Simon,Uply was the other Vietnamese player that brought home a silver medal, but while neither player was able to crack the championship in 2019, they were able to take their abilities to Ao Dai only a few hours after GPO, where they’re both regarded as among the top tier being two out of only three players to win the national event.After rebranding, recruitment and results,makes it out of 2019 as the top clan of the year, dethroningby no slim margin.Previously known as Psionic Aftermath, Alpha X had long been regarded as CranKy’s sister clan due to the focus on tournament organisation and content creation, but when it comes to sheer logistics, the Ducklings just can’t compete.Speaking of organisation that took a mighty blow in competitive results this year. Through a mixture of personal life, retirements and becoming more involved behind the scenes, less and less members of CranK’s fanclub participated as regularly as in 2018. Despite that, the consistent participation ofQuirky andDallyCat along with the not so consistent participation ofYakuzaku meant that CranKy Ducklings stayed afloat as the second highest ranking clan of 2019.Barely losing to CranKy by a margin of only ten points,makes it on the list thanks toPapapanda’s nine whole top four finishes, including his championship and four runner-ups. But Papapanda alone couldn’t put Platinum Heroes in third place, which is whereMagnath,vsep andEleven come in. While never quite placing as highly as their Taiwanese teammate, it was after their eliminations did they display how close knit the team is, cheering as hard as they could in Twitch chat and providing support in between games.But it is definitely possible to put your clan on the list alone, and bothesReveR andXenoBlaze proved it forandrespectively. While technically esReveR didn’t participate alone,Reignandpals having a brief hot streak early in the year before exceeding MMR limits, he did account for the vast majority of points accumulated by WGLH with his six championships and nine total top four finishes. XenoBlaze though, was literally the only representation from FairLight throughout 2019, accumulating 56 points across five championships, a runner-up and a semi-final finish. It’s perhaps a good thing then, that these clans had their sole representatives be the most dominant players in SDO history.And so that wraps up 2019’s CranKy events. Though the future remains uncertain, with concerns over whether or not amateur events will continue due to Blizzard’s adjustments to the API , the Ducklings will remain behind the scenes, looking to aid in any way we can. ( * )< QUACK | Twitter & Facebook: @CranKyDucklings | Twitch: CranKy_Ducklings | Discord: discord.gg/vYkFEE8 | Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/CranKyDucklings