



VTL Awards For VTL Players

A Clan Summary



by Light_VIP



by Yakuzaku

VTL may be done for us, but things are looking up. From bottom two of ATL to barely making the playoffs in the group of death, we have come far. But for now, here’s some MS Paint trophies.

Most Improved

Winning your first team league match is one of the greatest feelings to experience. It’s not quite like individual wins where you know there’s more to come soon, but even more than that you’ve got the hype of your team cheering you on.This is a feeling that I like to imagine most players use as motivational fuel, a push to go further with the confidence that since you’ve done it before, you can do it again.KatatoniK got the kick straight after week one after an amazing comeback game. The following weeks Kata pestered Voltacus and PhoenixTears to practice, diligently taking notes in her little book and even laddered. Kinda. A little. More than the amount required. Technically.It paid off.

Most Entertaining Player

Let’s be real, everyone likes comparing themselves to pro players, it’s just fun.Light_VIP is a late-game Zerg like Dark or Rogue , PhoenixTears is a wacky Protoss like sOs , and Yaku? He may be the Imitation Innovation and the Mel Torme of MMA, but the player I like to compare him to most is aLive , the player who can simultaneously beat anyone but in the same run lose to anyone.What makes Yaku’s games special is that he seems to scale to his opponents. Up against the low-Plat player? Make 45 SCVs and float 2000 minerals. Up against the high-Plat/mid-Diamond player? Throw away army leads and somehow get production back online to barely hold the counter-attack. Up against the high-Diamond player? Give the rest of the clan a glimmer of hope for the all-kill and crush that hope making it even more disappointing. Or just not use eyes and miss a scouted proxy.No matter who he was up against, Yaku’s games were never one-sided, but all-in-all, it added to the tension and ultimately, the hype, with the rest of the clan consistently losing it in voice chat, whether Yaku eked out a win, or threw himself into a loss.

SPAM THIS PJSALT CAUSE IT’S YAKU’S FAULT

Best Games

Cranky Ducklings vs Born Gosu: Kaidos KatatoniK vsKaidos

Cranky Ducklings vs Psionic Aftermath: JohnGoodman Light_VIP vsJohnGoodman

Cranky Ducklings vs Ris3n Community: Suntzu Milkncookies vsSuntzu

Cranky Ducklings vs Ris3n Community: ShinyPants PhoenixTears vsShinyPants

Cranky Ducklings vs Psionic Aftermath: GoodTarget Yakuzaku vsGoodTarget

One OP Umbrella, that’s all you need.Sometimes you wanna be unorthodox, sometimes you wanna induce some nostalgia, sometimes you go for a Void Ray opening. And sometimes someone comes in and reminds you why that’s stupid, sometimes someone kicks you up to date with the meta, sometimes Light drives his Cucaracha Dick™ to your defeat.Mech and Roach/Hydra are what I like to call the cult compositions of their respective races. Sure, they’re actually fairly popular, sure, they’re actually really effective, but when people think TvZ, they think swarms of Ling/Bane overwhelming Marines, they think of Tanks popping Banelings like bubble wrap and Marines melting Zerglings like butter. This game showed us how to use both, why they’re both effective, but also perhaps why they aren’t used as often.Steel hates Battlecruisers, “Terran make, Terran die” has been the mantra of Steel’s MakeBCsNotStupid movement. Yet I’ve never heard him happier when ShinyPants threw down a Fusion Core and whole lotta Tech-labbed Starports. It was the game of PhoenixTear’s Signature SkyToss™ and his Terran opponent’s desperate fight for survival. Stoopid Yoonit Royale I like to call it, after double drops, sky battles and storms, the dust finally settled, and while marines were dead and Cattlebruisers were brought to pasture, PhoenixTears had a Tempest, two Archons and a whole lotta bases.You tried to Bane-bust Yaku. Yaku who’s mastered the ways of TvZ defense after watching TRUE . Yaku who’s clanmate’s with Clare who Bane-busted his way to Masters. Yaku, who’s sheer dumb-luck sees him getting better engagements than he has any right to. Actually the Baneling mine was pretty good that’s gonna haunt all of my dreams.

Worst Game

CranKy Ducklings vs Formless Bearsloths: Floski Yakuzaku vsFloski

Now accepting funds for Yaku’s eye transplant.

Best Match

CranKy Ducklings vs Formless Bearsloths, CranKy Ducklings vs The Confederation

Winner: CranKy Ducklings vs Formless Bearsloths

Some matches relied on heavy-hitters to carry the team, some matches went back and forth in the most classic sense. But only our match vs Formless Bearsloths showed what our core players are really capable of.Starting with Kata reminding the world why she’s Matriarch of the Nerazim using #KataStrats in typical hype fashion, to Yaku showing why he’s the chairman of the 2-base all-in and ending with Light risking it all on Darkness Sanctuary with a Pool-First in the Ace-Match.I would say that this match exemplifies each player, their strengths and weaknesses, play-styles and why you should get excited to watch them play.Even the games on the worse end of the spectrum were entertaining in their own way. I held back all of the PTSD to type that sentence.

Comeback King + Game

KatatoniK (vsKaidos), Milkncookies (vsCaesar)Yes, I made the summary for Katatonik vs Kaidos short on purpose. Here’s the real deal.Mech vs Protoss. Mech vs Protoss, without Blue Flame. Mech, vs Protoss, without mines. God. Damn. Mech. Vs Protoss. This was Kata’s debut match. And the thing is, it worked! Kaidos’ opening fried Kata’s mineral line, she was down 19 workers in 4 minutes, against a Terran with MULEs. Kata was done.Until she made a Warp Prism. In his hubris, Kaidos neglected to make Engi-Bays, opting to go straight for Armory tech and completely omitted Missile Turrets. This, combined with lack of vision in his main, gave Kata free-reign to #PlayLikeBestHerO.Kaidos was unprepared, and seemingly just confused, pulling back his Cyclone army barely out of range to see the Prism. His economy slowing to a halt, his production quickly burning, and his army too scared to head to Kata’s base, Kata not only recovered, but dragged Kaidos into the infirmary.This was perhaps prophetic, as Kata’s games since then, particularly PvPs, followed a similar trend. Kata’s down from early game aggression, whether from her opponent or her own aggression failed, Kata says “fuck it”, goes in with a Warp Prism or Oracles and scares her opponent into splendid isolation till she gets what she needs for a big push to win.

MVD

I mentioned earlier that we had to be carried in some matches by a heavy hitter, and Milk was the one that hit the hardest.Milk sits at the highest map score, a feat made even more impressive when you factor in his insane schedule of 12 hours at campus with only a single day off a week, the one day we’d schedule our matches.When it came down to it, Milk never disappointed, able to bring us to the ace match after being down 2 maps or more, even won once.It was this reliability and especially this dedication that ultimately puts Milk as this season’s MVP.