Farewell to Wings Best Games of 2012 — ??? — ??? — ???

A while ago, we promised you a list of the best games of 2012. Since then, we've been busy watching, collecting, categorizing, and rating every notable game from the last full year of Wings of Liberty. While many will remember 2012 as the year of Zerg domination, brood lord turtling, and soul trains, it was also the year where Wings of Liberty truly matured. It's easy to look back on the games of 2011 and 2010 with rose colored glasses, but you can't deny that the quality of play has improved immensely since then. The golden age for high level StarCraft games started near the end of 2011, and moving into 2012, we saw some of the greatest games ever played.Whenever we were sometimes down in the dumps about perceived imbalances or the death of StarCraft, one of these gems would cheer us up, reminding us of how emotional, funny, nerve-wracking, and epic this game can still be. Of the many games we reviewed, 40 made the cut to have the distinction of being one of the top games of 2012. Before we begin, here are some disclaimers:

Best of 2013 and Honorable Mentions

Top games of 2013

Special mentions from 2012

But before we can unveil our list, there's something we must do. Due to the delay in getting this article out, a few months have passed in 2013 with a few must-mention games played in that time. It would be a travesty to leave these games out of any compilation of the best games ever, even if they don't technically meet the 2012 requirement. Here's a brief rundown of the best WoL games of 2013!Taking part in the best series of the year and perhaps one of the best series ever, Losira and Gumiho put on a show for us that we would not soon forget. For some reason whenever these two play, their styles collide to become something magical. In this game, Gumiho's twist on standard TvZ along with Losira's insistence on heading into the late game with ultralisks meant that we would have constant trading and action from every corner of the map. Lots of painful nukes too. And that's just game one.Game two of the series. See #7 but with a slight twist: fewer nukes, more queens, more cute neural parasite usage.Some games make it onto this list for brilliant play by one or more of its players. This is not one of those games. Fantasy and Effort represent two of the best, but at the same time, most fail-prone players within the KeSPA ranks. When both players fell into a strange and unfamiliar situation, they each tried to use the advantage of chaos to their advantage. But alas neither player's ID is Gumiho and thus the chaos took a life of its own as no one could reign it in. And while this game was not the most well-played one from either side, it was certainly unique; you can at least give it that.Let's face it. PvZ has not been the golden match-up of WoL. Once brood lords arrive on the field, all action comes to a grinding halt. Though we may see some minor harass from Protoss or runbys from Zerg, we all know that only the final climatic battle really matters. This game turned this expected path of the match-up on its head. Because of the particular openings by each side, both players were able to establish four to five bases each. Then it turned wild. Ladies and gentlemen, there were no established death-balls in this game, only continuous action and consistent trading.Coming in at the last minute, one of the last games of WoL also happens to be one of its best. In the last round of Up/Down matches, these two unlikely heroes, along with KT_Crazy, found themselves in a three way tie for first place. The tension was high as this one was for all the marbles. Filled with positional play, masses of multi-pronged drops, and nukes galore, this game captured the best of classic WoL TvZ. Bboongbbong and Noblesse provided us with a great sendoff to Wings of Liberty and we hope HotS can live up to the legacy of games like this.What is it with TvZs on Whirlwind? Last year, Ryung took on DRG with multi-pronged drops from every angle, pulling apart the dominant Zerg. This year presents us with Leenock against TY in a game where both players got to dish out the hurt with various forms of harass. In a completely scrappy late-game where neither side could secure a mining base, every unit would count and it would take a miracle or some incredible play for one player to tilt the scales. Though this was one of the first games played of the year, it would take another extremely special game to overcome its ranking.How fitting it is that after two epic games in this series, two of the best of the year, we have a third game that trumps them both. How would we describe this game? Take either one of the previous games (both of which made it to our list) and put it on a larger map that allows for even more multitasking, more expansions, and more creep spread. That still wouldn't be able to begin to portray the scope of this game.Put frankly, this game has everything. Standard Gumiho chaos? Check. Innovative play? Check. Nail-biting situations where one or two units from either side would have tipped the scales over? There's about five of those. Drones pulled in a climatic battle, corruptors corrupting individual marines, spine forest migrations, and an endgame that looked like a micro arena? Check, check, check, and check. Quite frankly, this game had everything you could want or expect from an epic game and we won't be seeing anything surpass it for a very long time.In addition, there were a couple of games from 2012 that didn't quite meet the 'best' criteria, but were so unique or special that they deserved mentioning nonetheless. We though about calling them "honorable mentions," but there wasn't much that was honorable about these games.Some games are so bad, they're good. Some games are so bad, they're f***ing terrible. In the case of Dragon vs. Cytoplasm from DHS 2012, it's really hard to tell where it falls. Some viewers seemed to find the sheer amount of carnage, confusion, and inability of either player to finish the game to be hilariously entertaining. Others found themselves disgusted by the match, but somehow still glued to their screens like they were watching a gruesome car wreck happen in slow motion. For better or for worse, it was a truly unique match from 2012, and one that just had to be mentioned.The most controversial game(s?) of 2012 also happens to be one(two?) of its best. MKP and Parting met once again in the GSTL Season 1 finals in Las Vegas. At the time, MKP was considered the best TvP player, using his sheer control to dominate entire Protoss armies. Parting, on the other hand, had just revolutionized the PvT match-up; his brilliant use of templar to flank his opponents single-handedly won him games. The battleground was Entombed Valley, a map with an open middle, perfect for showing off both players' trademark moves. Both players opened with their iconic builds – MKP with his double reactor barracks medivac pressure build and Parting with his fast templar build – setting this game up to be one of the best of the year.As the game played out, it looked like we had a game of the year candidate on our hands. But as Parting looked like he would take the game in an incredible comeback from behind, disaster struck. The game disconnected and shouts of "We want LAN" were heard round the world. After a long deliberation, it was decided that there would be a regame in one of the most controversial decisions in esports history. While the regame did not disappoint, ending up being a very close repeat of the first, it was inevitably overshadowed by the events before it. After the dust cleared, we were left with not one, but two of the most talked about games of WoL.