Summer of TaeJa: The Great IPL Team Arena Saga

Video courtesy IGN ProLeague ign.com/ipl
Video edited by David Schmidt ( / davidschmidtsc )
Casting by Kevin Knoke ( / kevinknocke ) and Erik Lonnquist ( / gosudoa )
TaeJa photo credit: KEVIN CHANG/Team Liquid ( / silverfire )
Audio credit: iStockAudio.com license, George_Ellina via soundcloud creative commons license, grapes via ccmixter creative commons license, Andy D One via soundcloud creative commons license.

[@Jackeh00]

I REALLY REALLY hope he continues this domination. He's just amazing omfg.

[@kowalityjesus]

great memories. Thanks guys.

[@twinestacraft9424]

You need to do this again about his dreamhack run (17-0 !!) please !

[@MrWiggles118]

Year of Team Taeja he loves the tears of the other races! even his own race!

[@Peradokid]

Watch just about all of those live! very epic

[@chairmobile]

Exactly. Often, in tournament settings, the lesser player can win through prep of a specific build, timing, or map trick (like Shine vs Flash in the last OSL - Flash won the series, but Shine's gimmick in G4 would never have worked outside of a tournament setting). True skill is independent of tournament wins - it's consistency in proleague/teamleague against various opponents, maps, and races, based on skill and not anticipating/preparing specific builds for specific players.

[@INFEDnoX]

Consistency is what makes a player truly great, and Mvp has shown he is the most consistent player there is. Did you see the games .vs TaeJa? Life didn't do anything truly spectacular, he just played decently. TaeJa played mediocre and Life won because of that. Mvp is a genius, and you can be damn well sure that he won't be caught losing entire bio balls to chain fungals, or losing all of his tanks unsieged.

[@idioticbread]

Never ever has a player looked so strong as taeja did summer 2012, never.

[@Blindspies]

Taeja was my favorite player of WoL. I've never seen someone so intensely skilled as him during his IPL rampage.

[@KelvinNg1]

Taeja's just freakin solid. GSL is different because you can prepare for your opponents and prepare builds and abuse their weak spots. Taeja doesn't do that, he just plays and wins with superior mechanics/micro. If the RO8-Finals of GSL are hosted in IPL5 (all played in the same couple of days), Taeja will win because there's no preparation, which is an advantage for Taeja. AND TAEJA IS A BOSS.

[@SCHVETTIG]

TaeJa so sick!! love him

[@jeirda5]

Taeja, the Immortal Terran, because his units just don't die.

[@haybd]

hey man can u make another video just on taeja crazy games on IPL team arena final? he did some crazy games there was verry exciting

[@shiz17js]

Add this to his ASUS and MLG golds and Taeja is on top of the world! Summer of Taeja 2012!!!

[@AceDerflinger]

It is more like Year of Taeja that Liquid IMO, He does all the work

[@RiSkySG]

I have no doubt after watching this that taeja is the best player in the world, by far, and has the most potential to become a bonjwa.. Amazing.

[@INFEDnoX]

And Mvp is the most dynamic player there is. He prepares for these long series' better than anyone else in the world, and to think Life will beat him easily is wrong,

[@mikecmtong]

Maybe not yet, but he certainly is pretty damn good. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wins a lot more from now on. He just has really amazing micro. I know to non-Terran players it may seem like "LOL I A-MOVE ALL DAY!" but microing a Terran army actually takes a LOT of skill.

[@aNamelessDread]

I couldn't agree more. I feel like the weekend LANs are much more indicative of true "skill", at least my definition of skill. Spending two weeks devising a build to snipe an opponent is awesome but not as awesome as seeing the sheer micro and macro might of someone like Taeja go at it.

[@RBEO22]

Total beast

[@chanddd2]

TAEJA OP! btw, name of the song which starts at 10:27?

[@Kazen73]

AS THEY SAY IT'S TAEJA TIME!!!!!!!!

[@SolarNuke1]

I think Taeja is the perfect all-round package. The best micro in the world coupled with cheater-terran macro and with amazing game-sense.

[@jonathanlim1537]

here again in 2019

[@BeatRappers]

seeing as he beat MVP and MMA in the first GSL round ... Taeja's TvT is unmatched.

[@thescoutabout]

Why don't they just send in Taeja first? Ahh shit, it's 1-4... guess it's time to put Taeja in.

[@junchoi2531]

taeja to this day has the best win loss ratio his 17 wins in a row to win dreamhack without dropping a map has never been beaten he also hold the record of all killing 3 teams

[@Eikli]

Taeja is like the best player in Starcraft 2 to date i think. At least skillwise.

[@CH0RUS]

Taeja makes Terran look ballanced

[@saus17]

Personal Top 5 Favorite Players 1. Taeja 2012-2014 2. Neeb (American Savior) 3. LiquidHero 2012-2014 4. Startale Squirtle 2012 5. MMA > MvP > MKP

[@phili58]

his macro is also leagues ahead of all terrans right now. he's the best player in the world currently. He can win unwinable games with pure micro and win straight up games with superior macro

[@flectz]

it's pretty much accepted now that terran is the hardest race.

[@arguin]

In TAC 3 final they both won one game against each other (1-1), fighting random opponents in team league ain't the same as winning GSL.

[@KelvinNg1]

I hope Liquid really steps up their game for San Fransisco, because if Taeja gets sniped by one of IM's players (who are really top-notch), they better have a backup plan :P

[@daexmachinus]

4:51 best concave ever

[@MrBladgrim]

Well, IM is only sending 2 of their champions (NesTea and Seed), as IPL only funds for 7 of their players to go. Nonetheless, they have a very strong lineup of players (Happy, YoDa, LosirA, NesTea, Seed, First, YongHwa), and it will be very hard for TaeJa to overcome them all by himself.

[@SolarNuke1]

Indeed :)

[@INFEDnoX]

We were clearly watching different series' then.

[@lukaszepesi]

Bomber is one of the only players that can beat Taeja at his best, so maybe they should have brought him out early instead of letting Taeja warm up and gain confidence that the comeback was possible.

[@pyrocentury]

Hindsight is 20/20. Every team passed up on Taeja and that's how Liquid signed him. Very few people expected Taeja to turn into the monster he was. StarTales never saw Taeja coming and didn't plan for him.

[@jeppepeppe22]

High Code S class on TaeJa atm....

[@TheCanadianBakin]

dat stutter step

[@Sejegs]

This is the price! I mean, he get's the attention, he get's the fans, he get's the big wallet now :-)

[@mickemmagin]

Does anyone know the song they play when they announce the winner?

[@oKnuTo]

i played random a half year ago and i never felt that they. spliting you marins and targeting banlings with tanks felt much easier than let your bans connect with marins. well thats just my opinon but terrrens should stop saying theyre micro is by far the hardest just because it looks the most impressive .microing toss is way harder becuase all the units are way slower for example and noone says terren a move and no one ever did

[@m4a17878]

He is a god,the best terran player.

[@CapnSoviet]

man catspajamas is such a good caster

[@chairmobile]

So a-moving banelings towards marine clumps is harder than splitting 5 groups of marines and target firing banelings with siege tanks at the same time? You have no logic. And tons of people claim that terrans just a-move (though, to be fair, many claim that protoss just has to a-move as well). And what micro, exactly, does toss require? A-move with everything but HT's, spamming storms isn't exactly hard. By your logic, broodlord micro is the hardest.

[@kirkoswald21]

hes only 17 too , think of the potential

[@Valinalo94]

How about a special price for best player?... After takeing three teams down? He is definitly the best player of the turnament!

[@MrBountz]

Yeah i play zerg and terran, zerg is the A-Move race >.

[@TheGabbuts]

A player who doesn't know that the Terran army micro requires a lot of skill is probably bellow Gold level. Saying this as Protoss

[@melzy8881]

MVP has more solid mechanics but i reckon taeja has one of the best target firing micro similar to that of MMA when he was at his prime. MVP has better decision making but taeja wud win outright when it comes to micro and macro

[@aNamelessDread]

I was thinking the same thing . . . about you.

[@chairmobile]

And before anyone calls this dude out for saying terran OP, "cheater-terran" is a reference to oov, not balance whine.

[@SnooppyGG]

5 games row? O.O this is not player this is SC Monster!!

[@BeatRappers]

You can't base how good a player is based on history. If you look at current win rates and tournament wins for 2012, Taeja has been far superior. I want mvp to win his fifth gsl but seeing Taeja lose to Life 3-0 makes me think it's doubtful.

[@AntiMatter31337]

Taeja = Bonjwa Called it :D

[@melzy8881]

lol we shud ask stefan to A move mass marine against pure baneling and see how that goes then ask Taeja to do his thing and i bet he can keep all his marines alive against pure bling :)

[@BeatRappers]

Look how well he performed in 2012, even though Zerg was quite imbalanced and still is, you can't call him a patchzerg.

[@NgArclite]

Also watched these live. Sadly chat ruined some of this by spamming Team Taeja :/

[@INFEDnoX]

Did you watch the finals?

[@nejtack1]

Bonjwa status might be in store if he dominates for 1-2 years...

[@antoinecointe8025]

yeah he must be a patchzerg he only has won 2 gsl,the IS2 ,one MLG.... and he had juste an incredible zergling play

[@Hooberschmit1]

"Who are these marines!"

[@aKuolow13]

i think zerg need some micro to contain charge formation. but toss... hahahahahahahaha

[@BeatRappers]

I did.

[@INFEDnoX]

Beating a player once in a BO3 is indicative of overall skill? Mvp is in his sixth GSL final.

[@Vasyo32]

the prob. for liquid is if Taeja get knocked out by seed or so, they fukked

[@knubbs123]

TEAJA BONJWA!

[@daimonfug]

They should name their team after him.

[@anthariostk]

When did he said that?

[@ShadowKilla175]

It is team taeja...

[@chairmobile]

Yeah, also one has to differentiate between individual results and, say, proleague results (this is more like in Brood War). Players like Sea, Midas, Bisu etc. have tremendous success in proleague, but average to bad results in individual tournaments, and when talking about the "greatest" players, we often look to GSL wins (MVP, for example). In this respect, Taeja is lacking. Apart from the smaller ESV, he has 1 MLG and 1 ASUS ROG win. That's not even close to how much he should be winning.

[@INFEDnoX]

Then you saw how both players played very sloppy then?

[@INFEDnoX]

Calling TaeJa better than Rain or Mvp is silly.

[@arguin]

Currently I'd say Seed since he won GSL. TaeJa never won GSL.

[@BeatRappers]

You clearly didn't see the same games I saw. Life has crazy harass timings that always put his opponent behind or just outright win him the game. What Life did was quite spectacular, no zerg has 3-0'd Taeja. Taeja had a 70% win rate versus zerg, to lose three games in a row is ridiculous. Obviously this kid has talent so don't try to belittle his achievements by saying Taeja was just "mediocre". And as for mvp, being consistent doesn't make you good, being Dynamic does.

[@PandaMeetsElvis]

Right? Best player of 2012: easily.

[@smokelakes]

liquid coaches better not fuck it up and put Taeja on any of the 1-3 spots

[@mikecmtong]

:P Yea probably

[@StraubreyMMA]

anyone know the beat 5:12 ?

[@alexgames6305]

Grapes - i dunno

[@jonatan236]

hes a beast but i think mvp still better

[@BeatRappers]

It's impossible to play any best out of 7 without playing sloppy in some games. All I saw was life dominate.

[@k3n705]

kevin knocke freaking out constantly is actually quite annoying; didn't notice until this video.

[@blondii5628]

LG-IM vs TaeJa

[@lordofyabols]

terran imba

[@NorthernChimera]

WHO ARE THESE MARINES

[@BeatRappers]

Ya, life won because Taeja was mediocre. I wonder why he beat MvP.

[@ding0389]

Did I just get raped?

[@OscarMemo333]

this commentors are so lame and fake....

[@小藍-f9f]

Taeja imbalance

[@James-pq5er]

Kevin Knocke really needs to let the other casters talk.. and his voice is extremely annoying

[@HateKillDestroy87]

THIS VIDEO. End of Argument.

[@Subs1338]

And I did not see Seed go 22-2 or whatever Taejas score was, at this tournament

[@Subs1338]

Who is then? I am expecting no response because you can't answer that question other than saying Taeja

[@Subs1338]

But he beat these players that won GSL. You telling me that he will not win the next GSL he attends with this kind of performance?

[@ballsaq]

That actually made me sick..

[@pAdoonky]

fix terran!

[@DarkLordPorn]

No