1. Leenock
I’m sure people will immediately get up in arms about this (especially if he loses tonight against MVP), But I decided to take the risk. Leenock not only fought his way through the open bracket to claim the title of MLG champion, but he did over names like MarineKing, MVP, LosirA, NesTea, MMA, NaNiwa, HuK, and a slew of others. Put that together with the fact he is also one win away from going to a GSL final when he was barely on the radar of contenders a month ago, and even the skeptics must agree, this has been Leenock’s month. Whether he can continue this impressive run remains to be seen.
2. MVP
MVP didn’t win anything with a huge trophy this month (yet), however, IM’s ace did pick up some seriously impressive wins in WCG Korea as well as the Arena of Legends. MVP is right now the monster of Starcraft 2, someone who is guaranteed to make deep runs and always bring their A game, no matter the situation. Not to bad for someone with CTS. Yes he isn’t number 1 right now, but only by a close shave.
3. HerO
HerO has really been turning it on in November. Not only did he finish the regular season of NASL undefeated (7-0), he also captured Liquid’s second Dreamhack trophy (HuK was still on Liquid when he won Dreamhack summer). HerO has looked calm and poised since transferring to Liquid, and has been able to turn that into real success something that Liquid right now desperately needs due to rather inconsistent result (or just downright slumps) from Jinro, TLO, HayprO, and Tyler. However, HerO luckily has been able to shake off all of that and shine.
4. NaNiwa
Naniwa plays to win and it is abundantly clear with his results. 1st place in the MLG World Invitational, 2nd at Providence and a strong showing at Dreamhack have demonstrated that the Swedish Protoss is still as dangerous as he was at the beginning of 2011.
5. DongRaeGu
DongRaeGu is a lot like a certain handsome protoss player from brood war. He’s always solid, great in team leagues, but he never seems to be able to turn that into an individual tournament gold. Once again, the Dong showcases what a talented player he is (3rd at Providence, Top 8 in Arena) and certainly proves that he is capable of taking matches off of anyone, but I feel that he has a good
chance of slipping if he doesn’t live up to his high expectations.
6. Jjakji
Another Player who seemingly came out of nowhere! Jjakji shocked everyone by blanking SlayerS’s Protoss pride Puzzle 3-0, since he really hadn’t been expected to do more than serve as cannon fodder for others during Code S. He’s now up against Oz though so he might not be able to pull the same trick twice. EDIT: Looks like I was wrong, Jjakji continues to destroy everyone's liquibets and beats Oz 3-2
7. Oz
These next few are really hard, simply because after the top 5, I either haven’t seen enough of these players or just haven’t seen them hit the podium this month to get a good idea (This is why we need a proleague!!!!!) So I put Oz down as my 6th choice. Why? Because if anyone had asked you what the chances were of Oz of taking out NaDa, Taeja, MMA, to wind up in the semi finals of a GSL, you would have rightly laughed at them. Oz has looked incredibly strong these past few weeks, and has done so after a stint where people wondered if there were any Protoss players at all in Korea. Unfortunately a loss to Jjakji has ended his GSL run, but it was an impressive showing. This is why I put him ahead of……
8. NesTea
Yeah, it’s not exactly fair to say that the Professor is doing bad, I mean, he smashed through a rough open bracket to take 12th at Providence (after the whole NaNiwa screen fiasco that I still don’t quite understand) as well as taking 2nd in the World Invitational, but the man who seemed at one point invincible has looMVPked rather mortal. He 0-2ed out of the round of 16 in the GSL and faltered against HayprO (who granted, had the tournament of his life, but is by no means on the level with MVP or others). Maybe he just had a bad couple of weeks, but either way, we can all agree he hasn’t been dominating the way he did back in May.
9. MMA
MMA hasn’t won anything this month, but he hasn’t lost to anyone who is bad either. His only losses this month are to DRG, Leenock, and Oz, all of whom are powerful players. Sure he hasn’t won anything, but he has done well enough to secure a Code S spot next season and make Top 10 at Providence. A very strong performance for the “son of boxer”
10. Ret
Ret is one of those players who simply is good all the time. He won’t win it all the time, but he will show up and not embarrass himself. November was a good month for Ret, he took home 3rd/4th at Dreamhack and finished a respectable 15th at MLG Providence. It’s a pity we probably won’t see much of Ret until next year, but hopefully he will have the time to tune up his game and make 2012 even more memorable.