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Elazer: The Unending Rebellion - Rank 10 - Road to BlizzCon

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Elazer: The Unending Rebellion - Rank 10 - Road to BlizzCon

Text byTeamLiquid ESPORTS
Graphics byshiroiusagi
October 16th, 2017 13:24 GMT
Photo Credit: DreamHack
Elazer
Mikołaj Ogonowski
Team Qlash


The Unending Rebellion


by Soularion


The current implementation of the WCS Circuit came too late. That was the opinion lurking in the shadows of the scene as 2016 reared up, with world-class stars such as Stephano and NaNiwa so far past their primes as to be rendered irrelevant. Even when 2015 came, look at the list of foreigners who made it to a quarterfinal in a WCS competition that year: Kane, TLO, ShoWTimE, Snute, Bunny, Lilbow, MarineLorD, Zanster, GunGFuBanDa, Petraeus, MaNa. If you told someone from that year that only two or three of those players would continue to be relevant at an elite level even a year later, they'd be dumbfounded. It becomes even sillier when one realizes that the two players who have replaced this breed of players as championship stars in 2017 were Neeb and Elazer. Neeb, who had been a borderline Ro.16 player for enough years to become predictable, and Elazer, who was thoroughly dissected by Hitman's brand of protoss cheese in the Round of 32, and only advanced due to what was effectively a miracle. But here Elazer is. One of three foreigners to win a WCS championship in the post-Schism era, and the only zerg. Not Snute. Not Nerchio. Not Serral. Not Zanster, who was a game away from being the favorite in the finals of 2015. It's Elazer.

"Elazer at his greatest embodies this sense of boundless ambition more than most foreigners ever could."
What's happened in a year to shift opinions so drastically? There's nothing quite as severe as a changing of calendars to make perfectly valid opinions seem so utterly inane. One year, Zanster is a borderline superstar in the foreign scene, and MaNa is on the verge of rediscovering the dominant protoss he once was. The next, both are irrelevant at the highest tier of competition. Elazer has known this more than almost anyone; in 2014, he didn't exist at all. He played matches, surely, and was even signed to a team, but did anyone bother to learn his name? Yet, hardly two years later, it was the taste lingering on people's tongues as he ascended to the semifinals of BlizzCon over the well-decorated and overwhelming favorite ShoWTimE. But even then, it was all so easy to discredit. He only beat foreigners, people squeaked. He was crushed by Dark. It wasn't even close. He won't make it there again, anyway.

But the changing of years came again, and it was merciless. Elazer has never been gifted a golden road. He lost in the qualifiers of WCS Austin to Bly, and one could almost taste the validation in the air; he didn't even attend the event. He was just another fading star. Just another dying breath. But Elazer's played too many games to be only that. He's tried too hard. To put their difference in mentalities into perspective, Elazer has already played twice as many games as NaNiwa in his young and largely fruitless career; the youth of now cares deeply about taking advantage of the deepened tournament scene, online and otherwise, and Elazer embodies the youth of now more than anyone. When he returned to the qualifiers for Jönköping, it was with the winds of glory in his lungs. He came back against ShoWTimE. He crushed Nerchio, and qualifier star Namshar. Elazer at his greatest embodies this sense of boundless ambition more than most foreigners ever could, of unstoppable dreams and unhalted victories. It's interesting to see Kelazhur and Elazer end up in the same group as, for all of his great play, Kelazhur has never quite been able to win the battle against fate. Yet it is Elazer who triumphs, over and over again, in the face of the worst odds and the most heart-aching of matchups. It is Elazer who eliminated Nerchio when the Blizzcon quarters are on the line. It is Elazer who doomed ShoWTimE to failure, both at Blizzcon and at Jönköping qualifiers. It is Elazer who stole Nerchio's thunder at WCS Valencia.



Winrate


67.66% vs. Terran
69.89% vs. Protoss
61.39% vs. Zerg

Rank


Circuit Standings
2

WCS Points


5245



It is Elazer who crushed the heart and soul of the foreign scene, Snute, coming back from being 3-1 down in his first ever finals. With nerves of steel and a heart of iron, it was Elazer who stood on that stage and lifted that trophy. Even at WCS Montreal, he took revenge on Serral, who had eliminated him from Austin and often dominated him early in the year. Even with all of this success, though, Elazer finds himself in the shadows. Sure, he is king within the shadows; he is the second-most accomplished foreigner of the year. But there is a 'second' next to the title he's so diligently sought. Without a single match played against Neeb, Elazer has been held back by him; he's been relegated to a rebel. Because that is the way of the StarCraft scene. Your accomplishments last year do not matter. Elazer was the last foreigner standing; last year. People are not loyal to the past, and only become less loyal as it grows with distance. People are loyal to tyranny, and tyranny only. Only by being absolutely dominant can one win over trust, the way Neeb has - and not Elazer. Never Elazer. Regardless of his unrelenting effort, of his trips to Korea, of his upsets of GuMiho and Stats online- he is the rebellion. It is in his blood. It was in his blood ever since he upset all those the audience loved to become the Dark Horse at Blizzcon - he was not Dark Horse because people adored him. He was not Dark Horse because he was favored, but people were too shy to say it. He was Dark Horse because every other horse was dead. In hindsight, it's been his birthright for much longer than just the Global Finals; he shouldn't have been at that BlizzCon at all, with many rooting for uThermal to make the upset over him in the dying moments. But that was never to be.

In 2016, Elazer learned that a peasant's only claim to fame is by being a rebel; in 2017, he learned that rebels can never be King. He won WCS Valencia, and Neeb still won three tournaments in the year and utterly dwarfed his accomplishments, without a single head to head between them. Serral arguably gets more claim to fame, because he was the promised prince; Elazer was promised nothing. If anything, he was promised irrelevance, and through sheer persistence has overcome the promises of fate to ascend to a mere false king. A fluke. That word stains everything he's done - the HomeStory Cup semifinals, the WCS Winter quarterfinals, WCS Global Finals run, the WCS Valencia victory, it was all one long fluke. One fever dream where a borderline WCS Premier zerg ascended to become somehow greater than players such as Nerchio and Snute, who were always going to be destined for the Hall of Fame. The only way for Elazer to seize the crown is to surpass it. If he does as he did last year - squeeze an upset over herO, draw some crowd favorite foreigner in the Quarters, then get 3-0'd in the semis - nobody would care. Sure, they'd say now that they would care, but that has already come and gone. In order to be King, Elazer needs to ascend even further. He would need to gather his vengeance against Dark, the Slayer of Foreigners and Tyrant in Korea. It is then, in that moment, that Elazer would have the strength of the entire foreign scene behind him. All of those men Dark has 3-0'd over the past couple of years. All of those crowd favorites. The heat and energy of a dozen dead men at Elazer's fingertips. It is then, with burning hatred, that Elazer could seize his throne.

It's a wish. A daydream. But none more grandiose than last year's miracle was. Elazer originally didn't deserve to be at BlizzCon; he tied with viOLet, and many assumed the Korean would edge out in their matchup. But then Hydra cancelled, and he was moved up to eighth seed. A cancellation from Polt moved him to seven, and now in a group of death featuring his idol Nerchio, a path was forged. An informal prophecy. As we have learned since, there is nothing that could stop Elazer from fulfilling a grandiose dream. Facing off against his idol, the favorite of the foreign scene, at the biggest tournament of the year. Down 2-1 against ShoWTimE with both player's years on the line. Down 3-1 against Snute in his first ever finals. It is Elazer who plays the role of the rebel, no matter how precarious. It is Elazer who is the peasant, forever rising to become a King. It is Elazer who fulfills his dreams.

And what dream more sweet than defeating the Dark?








Writer: Olli
Editor: Zealously, munch, Olli
Photo Credit: DreamHack
Statistics: Aligulac
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TL+ Member
Morbidius
Profile Joined November 2010
Brazil2167 Posts
October 16 2017 13:31 GMT
#2
Now, who will be the first korean to appear on these? (other than True ofc.)
Who is it you think you see?
DieuCure
Profile Joined January 2017
France3061 Posts
October 16 2017 13:38 GMT
#3
Gumiho i think or neeb
TL+ Member
Artanis[Xp]
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
Netherlands12423 Posts
October 16 2017 13:52 GMT
#4
Talk about a dark horse, even his liquipedia link sends you to Snute's page :O
Rob-Zero
Profile Joined January 2011
Germany270 Posts
October 16 2017 14:28 GMT
#5
The Liquipedia link goes to Snute
Dark Age of Camelot - I miss you
Olli
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Austria24017 Posts
October 16 2017 14:34 GMT
#6
On October 16 2017 23:28 Rob-Zero wrote:
The Liquipedia link goes to Snute


I fixed it even before this was posted!
Administrator"Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."
Zaros
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United Kingdom3217 Posts
October 16 2017 14:38 GMT
#7
So who is next Neeb or a Korean?
Durnuu
Profile Joined September 2013
France10114 Posts
October 16 2017 14:39 GMT
#8
"That words stains everything he's done - the HomeStory Cup semifinals, the WCS Winter quarterfinas"
Small typo - quarterfinas -> quarterfinals
Great read as usual
https://i.imgur.com/d9kaj98.png
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
6241 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-10-16 15:20:25
October 16 2017 15:18 GMT
#9
I'm guessing Gumiho is next, then either Neeb or TY.

And Elazer better start praying if he wants to beat Dark.

For the night is Dark and full of terrors.
If heroes run and hide, who will stay and fight?
TL+ Member
Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom6086 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-10-16 16:17:53
October 16 2017 16:16 GMT
#10
I don't see a reason to put Elazer as the second highest foreigner tbh, I feel like his acheiments (although great) have been carried by ZvZ. Wouldn't give him a good chance against the terrans and protoss at blizzcon, not compared Snute and Serral at least
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
Avicularia
Profile Joined February 2012
528 Posts
October 16 2017 16:38 GMT
#11
Snute's ZvP is pretty bad comparing to Elazer's. However his ZvT is probably best in EU.
Argonauta
Profile Joined July 2016
Spain1401 Posts
October 16 2017 16:41 GMT
#12
Result wise Im ok with the order, maybe elazer doesnt have the veteran feel of Snute and Nerchio, but result wise he should be this high, you may argue about bracket luck and that he was hitting ZvZ a lot in tournaments, but given the amount of Zergs there are outside of korea is kinda imposible to not play 2 or 3 ZvZ in the playoffs of az tournament.
Rogue | Maru | Scarlett | Trap
FrkFrJss
Profile Joined April 2015
Canada1131 Posts
October 16 2017 16:47 GMT
#13
Just a minor complaint...but Neeb was not a borderline ro16 Terran in 2013; he was strongly a ro32 player. He was a ro16 Terran in 2014, with two ro16 and a ro32, and he switched to Protoss in 2015 with only one ro32 result.

The reason this is annoying is that he was a good enough Terran in 2013-2014 that he could have been a strong foreign Terran had he continued, and he had a meteoric rise in 2015-2016 after just switching to Protoss. In other words, he wasn't one of the perpetually ro16 players who could get near or just to the ro16 and then get eliminated. He was someone who was seen as having a lot of potential if he continued playing. If I recall correctly, it was big surprise that he beat Stardust in challenger.
"Keep Moving Forward" - Walt Disney
IArako
Profile Joined June 2015
125 Posts
October 16 2017 16:50 GMT
#14
Gumiho, SoO, TY, herO will be below Neeb
Special Tactics
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada3598 Posts
October 16 2017 16:51 GMT
#15
On October 17 2017 01:16 Fango wrote:
I don't see a reason to put Elazer as the second highest foreigner tbh, I feel like his acheiments (although great) have been carried by ZvZ. Wouldn't give him a good chance against the terrans and protoss at blizzcon, not compared Snute and Serral at least


He had some great result online against Korean lately beating Zest, Stats, Gumiho and tying vs Classic and Rogue, that probably boost him a bit.
rafaliusz
Profile Joined December 2009
Poland479 Posts
October 16 2017 17:10 GMT
#16
This read was so epic it gave me nerd chills.
bulya
Profile Joined February 2016
Israel366 Posts
October 16 2017 17:58 GMT
#17
On October 17 2017 01:50 IArako wrote:
Gumiho, SoO, TY, herO will be below Neeb


TY? ok
Gumiho? sure
soO? may be

but I would definitely put herO above Neeb!
LtCalley
Profile Joined March 2011
United States233 Posts
October 16 2017 18:04 GMT
#18
i knew it was gonna be like this, but it's still funny to see nothing but foreigners at the bottom of the power rank xD
"No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you" - Homer Simpson
frazzle
Profile Joined June 2012
United States459 Posts
October 16 2017 18:20 GMT
#19
On October 16 2017 22:24 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:
All of those men Dark has 3-0'd over the past couple of years.

TBF, Nerchio merely got 3-1'd in GSL vs the World. He can take damage from mortal foreigners after all.
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
6241 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-10-16 18:49:48
October 16 2017 18:46 GMT
#20
On October 17 2017 03:20 frazzle wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 16 2017 22:24 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:
All of those men Dark has 3-0'd over the past couple of years.

TBF, Nerchio merely got 3-1'd in GSL vs the World. He can take damage from mortal foreigners after all.

It's just a flesh wound.

Foreigners can make Dark bleed, but only ichor. It takes a Korean to draw real blood.
If heroes run and hide, who will stay and fight?
TL+ Member
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