Welcome to another edition of the Power Rank! Last month featured a ton of top-tier StarCraft II competition, with champions crowned at WCS Montreal, Code S Season 3, and Super Tournament 2. While Maru and Serral kept their positions on top of the ranking, there was plenty of movement below them. Anyway, here's the Power Rank criteria:
Results from September 4th (Code S Semifinals) to September 30th (after GSL Super Tournament)were taken into consideration.
The Power Rank is an aggregate, average ranking of separate lists submitted by individual members of the TeamLiquid.net writing staff.
Criteria considered include, but are not limited to: Tournament placements, overall record, quality of opponents faced, quality of play.
Recent results are weighted more heavily, but players may receive benefit of the doubt for consistent performances over time.
GuMiho: It's a bit harsh to relegate the Towel Terran to CNBC after he placed #6 last month but there's no way to rate his September as anything but a total disaster. GuMiho was active and successful in online competition as usual, but he failed where it mattered most: The GSL Super Tournament 2. Needing a good result to lock-in his spot at BlizzCon, he failed to qualify for the Super Tournament AT ALL after losing to Hurricane and Creator in the qualifiers.
Trap: Perennial #9 ranked player Trap finally drops out of the top ten after an underwhelming RO16 elimination in the Super Tournament. Honestly, Trap probably isn't any worse than he was last month—it's just that more established players jumped ahead of him after putting in good performances in the Super Tournament.
Neeb: It's hard to know what to make of Neeb these days. His impressive GSL Code S run came to an end in the semifinals where he lost 2-4 to the superb TY. Despite the loss, he received much-deserved praise for being the first foreigner to reach the GSL semifinals since Jinro back in 2011. Then, he went on to lose 1-2 to part-time pro Semper in the group stages of WCS Montreal before ultimately being eliminated by Reynor in the RO16. Umm, what the heck?
Rogue dropped to #7 last month after getting swept by Neeb in the Code S quarterfinals and now he's barely hanging on to the #10 spot after suffering RO16 elimination in Super Tournament 2. Rogue gets some sympathy points due to being matched up against Maru in the Super Tournament (plenty of good players have been swept by the Code S three-peater), and receives some credit for his rather good online performances. Still, if Rogue didn't have the gravitas of being a double world champion, he may have been ousted from the PR.
It's been nearly a year since Rogue won BlizzCon and seven months since he lifted the IEM Katowice Trophy. Most of his championship aura has faded now and he looks to be in very rough shape. Last year, Rogue won the Super Tournament right before BlizzCon, foreshadowing his championship run in the Global Finals. This time around, he has no momentum at all. Rogue will need to make a drastic turnaround if he wants to mount a credible title defense.
Would you look at that, Solar is back! We have to go all the way to back to May to find any mention of Solar in the Power Rank, and even then he only warranted a CBNC mention. Frankly, there’s a very good reason for that. Solar’s semifinal run in Super Tournament 2 was his best result of the entire year, topping his top eight finish in the first Super Tournament.
Solar was in desperation mode in Super Tournament 2 as he contended against soO, Trap, sOs, and GuMiho for Korea's final ticket to BlizzCon. Unfortunately, he was stopped short of his goal as sOs defeated him 3-2 in the semifinals. With one more map win against sOs and a series win against Classic in the finals, Solar could have secured his spot in 2018's grand finale.
In online competitions, Solar put up a very healthy win-rate in tournaments both large and small, but he was ultimately bested by the secretive sOs who played in no online competitions at all. Solar earns himself the #9 spot after a month of solid performances, but it will hardly be of any solace after missing out on BlizzCon.
Call him a madman. Call him a genius. It doesn't matter: sOs is going back to the Global Finals.
Despite having a very mediocre year overall, sOs scrapped together enough points to earn Korea's eighth and final BlizzCon seed with a miraculous Super Tournament 2 run. sOs started off by confirming GuMiho's exit from contention by defeating KeeN in the Ro16. Then, he did the impossible and eliminated freshly crowned 3-time Code S champion Maru in the Ro8. That left him to face Solar in the semifinals in a head-to-head deathmatch with a Global Finals spot on the line. sOs initially went down 0-2, but he came back with an incredible reverse-sweep to snatch the last ticket up for himself.
With seemingly unstoppable momentum, he quickly secured a 3-0 lead in the finals against Classic. However, after making such an unlikely run, sOs suffered just as dramatic of a collapse, allowing Classic to come back with a 4-3 reverse sweep of his own. sOs may not have won the tournament in the end, but he secured his place in the Global Finals, a competition he has already won two times in his career.
The Jin Air Protoss was never the favorite headed into either of his BlizzCon championships—is another unexpected sOs-triumph brewing? Will he really shatter everyone’s hopes and dreams in Anaheim to claim his third world championship? Everything is possible with sOs. All we can say for certain is this: sOs is very hungry once more and now he hunts the biggest prize of all.
The bad boy of the Korean scene is very much like the moon: he waxes and wanes as the weeks go by, only unveiling his true form on rare occasions. Dark’s lackluster Code S Ro16 elimination in August saw him drop all the way to #10 in our previous Power Rank, but here he is once more, climbing the ranks.
For Dark, September’s big opportunity was the second GSL Super Tournament of the year. It was smooth sailing for Dark all the way up to the semifinals, where he met his mortal frenemy Classic. Dark swaggered his way to a 2-0 lead in the series, only to suffer an embarrassing reverse-sweep (Classic went on to nab the trophy with another reverse-sweep in the finals). The Super Tournament run encapsulated Dark's 2018 in a nutshell: overwhelmingly strong at his best and a serial choker at his worst.
Alongside Rogue and INnoVation, Dark is one of the players we're quick to give the benefit of the doubt in the Power Rank, as they've been #1 worthy in the past. Dark's Super Tournament Ro4 finish signaled a partial recovery, which was enough to warrant a rise in the standings. We're anxious to see if the best version of Dark will show up at BlizzCon.
Stats remained true to his “online Stats” nickname in September, posting a 4-6 record in online events, with three wins coming over elite competition like domickc, yryf and WayTeh. By now we’re well acquainted with online Stats, but we can rely on Stats to reveal his true abilities in the events that matter most. Month in and month out, the Splyce Protoss repeats the whole song and dance, and has become richer and more renowned for it.
It wasn’t like that this time around. After losing to Zest in the Code S quarterfinals, Stats suffered quarterfinal elimination yet again in Super Tournament 2, losing to Solar as he made a desperate lunge toward BlizzCon. It was Stats' second loss to Solar that month—not a bad result given Solar’s result form. But overall, Stats was disappointing in September and he was a far cry from the player who took Serral to seven games in the GSL vs. The World finals.
The lack of positive results over the past month do little to inspire confidence when it comes to Stats’ chances at the WCS Global Championship. Recent struggles aside, Stats is still one of only five players to win a tournament on Korean soil this year. Should he summon up a bit of his old form he’ll have a fair shot of redeeming himself after last year’s BlizzCon disappointment.
Zest's slip to the #5 spot in this month’s ranking is affirmation of the age old maxim(?): don’t get stuck in traffic. Whereas GuMiho was plummeted into Close But No Cigar purgatory after losing in qualifiers for Super Tournament 2, Zest didn't even get to play at all after a particularly difficult commute. With that in mind it’s a little cruel that Zest’s standing would fall.
We can't forget about the beating Maru administered to Zest in the Code S semifinals, even if Maru beatdowns have become so routine that we no longer count them too harshly against the recipients. But it’s hard not to recognize the performances by the players ahead of Zest: TY, who gave Maru his toughest match of the year in the Code S finals, and Classic, who stormed in from out of nowhere to win Super Tournament 2.
Other than that, Zest remained active on the online circuit. He beat some people (Stats), lost to some people (Solar three times), but overall posted a very positive record. Popular opinion suggests that Zest isn’t as good as his results signify, but he’ll still go into BlizzCon as one of the players most likely to make waves. He still can’t beat Solar, but he’s gone a way to shoring up PvZ, his weakest match-up. The fact that he’s showed good results against the other two races means that he’s well positioned for a deep run.
September turned out to be quite a bittersweet month for TY. Starting strong, he took victories over Classic in the ONPOONG Masters and against Neeb in GSL Code S, finally qualifying him for another Code S Grand Final. Here, he again started very strong, keeping his nerves against the onslaught of Maru’s proxy strategies. Things went all downhill from there, however. His record-chasing opponent simply didn’t stop with the proxies, brute-forcing more and more cheese down TY’s throat to even out the series. TY regained control and got to match point, but in a very typical TY fashion he simply couldn’t close it out. Game 6 on Acid Plant basically was decided in the Splyce Terran’s favor before he choked and essentially handed the map back to Maru. The final game ended with TY tapping out after failing to hold against Maru's desperation attack.
It was TY’s big chance to overcome Maru, to keep him from winning his third GSL in a row and making history for himself, but he blew it. For now, he’ll continue to play second fiddle to the Jin Air Terran.
The loss clearly had a bit of an impact on TY’s mentality, since he stopped competing online again (with the exception of the ONPOONG Masters where he promptly lost to Solar). Most concerning is his early elimination at the hands of Creator in Super Tournament 2. Creator—who played in just a single Code S this year—is not someone a recent GSL finalist and BlizzCon contender should lose a Bo5 to. Maybe we can shrug it off and say TY was taking it easy after the Code S finals. But if not, he must quickly recompose himself if he is to have a chance of winning the WCS Global Finals.
After a lengthy hiatus from our Power Rank and being successful in general, Classic is back and making an impact just in time for BlizzCon! September saw Classic record some decent online results but it was the Super Tournament where he truly shined.
He didn't qualify in very convincing fashion (2-0 SuperNoVa, 0-2 Solar, 2-1 Cure) and hardly anyone expected him to be a strong contender for the trophy. After a dominating win over FanTaSy and close call against Creator, Classic scored his first impressive victory by defeating nemesis Dark in the semifinals. Down 0-2 to start, Classic heavily utilized Adept-builds to reverse-sweep the Zerg master. On the other side of the bracket, sOs had once more managed to shock the StarCraft world by securing a BlizzCon spot and reaching the finals.
Initially, it seemed as if Classic would choke away another championship opportunity in 2018 after sOs went up 3-0. The Jin Air Protoss seemed unstoppable, his victory almost confirmed. Classic, however, kept his cool and turned his fortunes around. One map after another, he picked apart sOs’ PvP gameplan, eventually completing a reverse-sweep against his second opponent in a row.
The moment was significant in that it was Classic's first major title since 2015. However, his ability to stay calm and under such intense pressure may be our biggest takeaway from Super Tournament 2. Classic started 2018 looking like one of the best players in the world, but his reputation crumbled after a number of un-clutch performances in important matches. Now, with adamantine nerves to match his considerable skill, Classic suddenly looks like a very deadly opponent for anyone to face at BlizzCon.
The Finnish Phenom puts in another flawless month without a single series loss. Serral winning his fourth WCS Circuit championship was almost inevitable, the fulfillment of a preordained future. It's true that Serral looked a bit more vulnerable than usual as the all-ZvZ gauntlet of Scarlett, Lambo, and Reynor pushed him to his limits at Montreal. But ultimately, Serral proved once again that even when he faces immense pressure, he'll come out victorious every time.
After WCS, Serral took some more dominant victories at the QLASH Invitational finals and in online competition as well, quickly erasing any doubts about his ZvZ left over from Montreal. It took four people to finally beat the Finnish Zerg in a 4 vs. 1 archon mode show match, which pretty much sums up everything we need to know about Serral's power before BlizzCon.
Other players might be wary about having such a giant target mark stuck to their back—the foreigner who takes down Serral would become a legendary giant-killer, while the Korean who defeats him would become a righteous avenger for GSL vs. The World. In Serral's case... the only reason he wouldn't welcome the challenge is because he doesn't think it's a challenge at all.
Serral won't be the underdog in any match-up in the near future, not even at BlizzCon with half of the field being elite Koreans. Even against Maru, he'll be able to go into the match as an equal.
What can we say? A month ago, we were scrounging for ways to make Maru seem vulnerable, to make Code S slightly more interesting. Headed into a quarterfinal match against GuMiho, we speculated that TvT might be Maru's worst match-up. But he barely had to lift a figurative finger as he swept the Towel Terran 3-0, setting up a rematch against Zest in the Round of 4. Maru dropped just a single map against the Scythe Esports Protoss in their second meeting in two seasons as he continued his march towards history.
Maru had made it known over the past few months that TY was the player he feared most and. While the Splyce Terran proved to be a sterner test than any Maru faced all year in GSL, Maru clutched out the seven game series, becoming the first player to win three consecutive Code S titles in the process.
Maru’s achievement was historic, but he still had one more tournament to play in before he could prepare for BlizzCon. He 3-0'd Rogue in the opening match of Super Tournament 2, but lost in a very peculiar team-kill type situation that brought sOs one step closer to qualifying for BlizzCon (a feat sOs ultimately accomplished one match later). Some might point out Maru's poor performances in the two Super Tournaments and GSL vs. The World as a weakness, but others might say he conserves his best efforts for tournaments where big prize pools and StarCraft II history are on the line.
With GSL competition having taken its bow for the year, there’s no doubt that Maru is the best player in the world. As the favorite heading into BlizzCon, it would be no surprise if Maru claimed his fifth title of the year and became Jin Air’s third WCS Global Champion.
The Power Rank might say that Rogue is ranked lower than Classic (even the WCS Standings points to that) but I still favour Rogue over Classic in his BlizzCon Ro16 group, especially considering how Classic's PvZ is still worrisome. Yes, there's argument to be made that Rogue hasn't done much recently, even losing against Neeb in Code S but I still think he has something planned but definitely no momentum. Then again, all of this might be moot because it might be SpeCial who moves on first in his group, just like last year. Let's go Juan
As much as I am a huge fan of sOs, I really worry about him going up against Serral first. His PvZ is just like Classic, in that it is not as solid as the other players and the standard macro play definitely won't go his way, so I think he Has to come up with some of the most brilliant strategies and mind games to throw Serral off.
neeb didn't make the cut???? he made history by doing something only jinro has done!!!!! i had thought for some reason that naniwa had also reached a semifinals. and wow no innovation on the powerrank????
anyway maru is a god and i am cheering for him. sc2 needs a bonjwa
On October 05 2018 09:48 EzioAs wrote: The Power Rank might say that Rogue is ranked lower than Classic (even the WCS Standings points to that) but I still favour Rogue over Classic in his BlizzCon Ro16 group, especially considering how Classic's PvZ is still worrisome.
Would wholly agree, Classic's PvZ is his usual Achilles heel and it's pretty well known at this point (in many of his interviews iirc). Probably really adds insult to injury that Dark, his good friend, always complains about toss imba lol.
But this is reasonable for the PR, it's meant to gauge overall strength rather than head-to-head power, so it's no fault of the PR that it fails to capture this MU
On October 05 2018 09:48 EzioAs wrote: The Power Rank might say that Rogue is ranked lower than Classic (even the WCS Standings points to that) but I still favour Rogue over Classic in his BlizzCon Ro16 group, especially considering how Classic's PvZ is still worrisome. Yes, there's argument to be made that Rogue hasn't done much recently, even losing against Neeb in Code S but I still think he has something planned but definitely no momentum. Then again, all of this might be moot because it might be SpeCial who moves on first in his group, just like last year. Let's go Juan
As much as I am a huge fan of sOs, I really worry about him going up against Serral first. His PvZ is just like Classic, in that it is not as solid as the other players and the standard macro play definitely won't go his way, so I think he Has to come up with some of the most brilliant strategies and mind games to throw Serral off.
Can't wait for the BlizzCon preview/fanfic.
If there’s one thing sOs has taught me as a starcraft fan it’s to not EVER underestimate him because he’ll find a way to break your heart by trouncing your favorite players. It’s either be an sOs fan or live in fear of bitter disappointment when the mad genius Protoss seeks his bounty.
Finally the awful unfunny Trap = 9 meme is gone. Yay !!
However; definitely some questionable rankings. Not sure how Dark beats sOs, or why Neeb isn't in the 10. I think TY and Classic are probably about equal so I can live with that.
Neeb should be in over Rogue. He beat Rogue in the GSL and played a very competitive series against TY. Rogue hasn't done much recently aside from kick a little butt online, not to mention his GSL series against Neeb was awful.
Classic is flat out way too high even if he did win the recent ST. Aside from that win he's done next to nothing, went out in the ro32 in GSL and even in the ST only barely got the win against Creator, Dark, and sOs. Don't see how that puts him over TY, who's been in great form for the past 3 months online and off, recently made a GSL finals, and barely lost to a guy who's won every GSL this year.
On October 05 2018 10:40 FrostedMiniWheats wrote: Not a good ranking this time around.
Neeb should be in over Rogue. He beat Rogue in the GSL and played a very competitive series against TY. Rogue hasn't done much recently aside from kick a little butt online, not to mention his GSL series against Neeb was awful.
Classic is flat out way too high even if he did win the recent ST. Aside from that win he's done next to nothing, went out in the ro32 in GSL and even in the ST only barely got the win against Creator, Dark, and sOs. Don't see how that puts him over TY, who's been in great form for the past 3 months online and off, recently made a GSL finals, and barely lost to a guy who's won every GSL this year.
TY also got 3-1'd by Creator. He's lucky to even be allowed in the top 10.
These power rankings are ridiculous, I'm sorry. How can Classic be above TY? How can Zest be above Stats? I'm beyond commenting on Serral's position at this point (Foreigner wins 1 Korean event and then get crushed at the next tournament where the Koreans actually prepare for them where have I seen this before... hm...).
Anyway I guess I can't really complain since these power rankings have always sucked. I honestly expected Serral to get first place though after winning some online cup and Maru losing to sOs who was unranked. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from TL power rankings.
On October 05 2018 14:44 Rodya wrote: These power rankings are ridiculous, I'm sorry. How can Classic be above TY? How can Zest be above Stats? I'm beyond commenting on Serral's position at this point (Foreigner wins 1 Korean event and then get crushed at the next tournament where the Koreans actually prepare for them where have I seen this before... hm...).
Anyway I guess I can't really complain since these power rankings have always sucked. I honestly expected Serral to get first place though after winning some online cup and Maru losing to sOs who was unranked. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from TL power rankings.
I'm impressed that you're still posting in spirit form after you were killed two months ago XD
On October 05 2018 14:44 Rodya wrote: These power rankings are ridiculous, I'm sorry. How can Classic be above TY? How can Zest be above Stats? I'm beyond commenting on Serral's position at this point (Foreigner wins 1 Korean event and then get crushed at the next tournament where the Koreans actually prepare for them where have I seen this before... hm...).
Anyway I guess I can't really complain since these power rankings have always sucked. I honestly expected Serral to get first place though after winning some online cup and Maru losing to sOs who was unranked. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from TL power rankings.
hello again
Actually, shouldn't you be celebrating that neeb isn't in the top10? If you're going to hate foreigners, at least be happy when one is excluded from the power rank.
This power rank is really tough because recent results are. Players who performed great over the year, didn't show good results at the Super Tournament, some got back into form and others came kind of out of nowhere. Thus almost every placement in this rank feels kind of wonky. Reading it, I had a big "but...!" in my mind for almost every player but thinking about it I could rank players one placement up or down at most. The only one that really concerns me is Gumiho. I think he should've been in 10th place instead of Rogue. Yes I know - Gumiho didn't qualify but he obviously got caught off guard by a surprisingly well performing Creator (who also beat TY and almost Classic) while Rogues qualification also didn't look very convincing (losing to Keen and beating ever-inconsistent Dear). Also I'd argue that Gumiho's GSL performance was slightly better, getting stomped by great Maru while Rogue got stomped by not-as-great Neeb. And Rogue's so called online success is almost entirely based on wins against Cure and penguin with two of his four runs getting stopped by Inno and Keen. His only impressive feat was beating Zest in Olimoleague.
On October 05 2018 14:44 Rodya wrote: These power rankings are ridiculous, I'm sorry. How can Classic be above TY? How can Zest be above Stats? I'm beyond commenting on Serral's position at this point (Foreigner wins 1 Korean event and then get crushed at the next tournament where the Koreans actually prepare for them where have I seen this before... hm...).
Anyway I guess I can't really complain since these power rankings have always sucked. I honestly expected Serral to get first place though after winning some online cup and Maru losing to sOs who was unranked. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from TL power rankings.
I'm impressed that you're still posting in spirit form after you were killed two months ago XD
I imagine the results of the Super Tournament made it quite hard to make this list because of the amount of surprising results. I still find myself in agreement with most of it though, except for Classic being a bit too high.
The last few power rankings have been pretty solid in both writing and ranking. Keep it up guys.
On October 05 2018 14:44 Rodya wrote: These power rankings are ridiculous, I'm sorry. How can Classic be above TY? How can Zest be above Stats? I'm beyond commenting on Serral's position at this point (Foreigner wins 1 Korean event and then get crushed at the next tournament where the Koreans actually prepare for them where have I seen this before... hm...).
Anyway I guess I can't really complain since these power rankings have always sucked. I honestly expected Serral to get first place though after winning some online cup and Maru losing to sOs who was unranked. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from TL power rankings.
I'm impressed that you're still posting in spirit form after you were killed two months ago XD
It's a shame people downplay Classic so much. Literally the best thing he could have done given his absence in GSL was win supertournament. Which is arguably a more impressive win than Serral's Montreal victory
Still think this thing rates Serral way too high putting him above every korean code s mainstay outside of Maru. Cant wait for the backlash for posting this but irks me too much not to. Play in a code S with these guys and dominate like he does wcs minors and i agree. Till then hes 6th or 7th at best . Look at the guys above him on this list..zest makes the finals and semifinals in last 2 code s..only to get stopped by maru..dark loses a code s to maru in finals..loses wesg finals to maru in a sick series where serral.got swept. Stats loses a finals to maru lol. Losing to Maru makes u worse than Serral according to this.
And ps i understand this says september based..but again if serral faces no difficult opponents in september he should be downgraded by default lol.
Love the bit on Neeb, and people wonder why I don't believe in this kid?
Come on guys, he's an American, I'm an American, I should have every reason in the world to support him, but I don't.
How come? Because he just isn't legit. He lacks that X factor that make guys like Serral and Maru lethal. He lacks the pure raw talent of someone like Scarlett or Showtime where you can always speculate that they can get better. And he's a veteran, he's established he's not a bright shining unknown like Reynor who has nowhere to go except up.
He's at his peak, this is his final form. He's a challenger, but he isn't a contender. I'm not being a hater, I'm just stating the truth.
Neeb's ranked low because results are taken from September 5th to 29th. Rogue vs Neeb was August 29th. So in that time Neeb's lost to TY, Semper, and Reynor and only won against Cyan and Mana. That's why he's honorable mention.
Power rank is meaningless in sc2 especially in pro level.
It’s like top players have similar level. But pretty sure Maru is ahead of anyone else atm.
And rest top players like Classic, Stats, sOs, Zest, TY, INnoVaton, GuMiho, Dark, Serral, Rogue, soO, Solar can still take out Maru depend on condition, map, and build orders.
Why the hell is Serral, a minor league player, rank higher than TY? TY has shown he has the ability to beat Maru in a Best of 7. And the only reason why Serral won against Koreans in exhibition matches is because Koreans doesn't know him. It's the same case with Neeb and Scarlett. Get Serral to qualify for Code S first please.
And most of fans who don’t fully understand pro level might believe “Who beat who and who lost to who, so who is better than who.” But this is not true.
Sc2 is very random game especially when comparing with BW. Game is much easier to control, but because of that, everyone can control and skill gap is not huge among pro players. I’ve seen tons of low level pros or even amateurs beating top pros before.
The game is complicated and depend a lot on with players’ conditions, build orders, and some randomness. Any pro players can win 1 game vs Maru whether it is luck or not. Sc2 is just that kind of game. You can beat much better opponent. Unless it is difference between master and platinum.
On October 06 2018 03:45 RandomOnlyTheHumanLf wrote: Power rank is meaningless in sc2 especially in pro level.
It’s like top players have similar level. But pretty sure Maru is ahead of anyone else atm.
And rest top players like Classic, Stats, sOs, Zest, TY, INnoVaton, GuMiho, Dark, Serral, Rogue, soO, Solar can still take out Maru depend on condition, map, and build orders.
We can probably safely conclude now that Zest should not be in the list. He simply can't take a map from Maru right now. The only time he got a map from Maru was when Maru got bored.
On October 06 2018 04:05 ProFalseIdol wrote: Why the hell is Serral, a minor league player, rank higher than TY? TY has shown he has the ability to beat Maru in a Best of 7. And the only reason why Serral won against Koreans in exhibition matches is because Koreans doesn't know him. It's the same case with Neeb and Scarlett. Get Serral to qualify for Code S first please.
There might be some hyping and propaganda about the best foreigner who can never be beaten by any other foreigners’ level. And again this is foreign fans community and it is understandable to rate rank like this.
But in terms of pure skill, I believe Serral is really in same level as top Koreans when I watch his games, he has great mechanics, fast decision making, great map understanding. And even won GSL vs World. But that is not enough proof Serral is above everyone else except Maru.
He was the only one had undefeated record in WESG 18-0 against foreigners before losing 0-3 by Maru. Ppl say raven was OP there. But game 2 was simply won by Maru with bio harass + bio tank push in mid-late game. And Dark was still able to almost beat Maru in final by making 3-3 and he even defeated Maru’s raven in some games.
Blizzcon will tell everything. And I remember ppl were always hyped like this about the best foreigner before when Lilbow made foreign zergs frustrated and they believed he had better style than Korean protoss. And when Neeb won kespa cup, the hype was not behind of current Serral before blizzcon.
On October 06 2018 03:45 RandomOnlyTheHumanLf wrote: Power rank is meaningless in sc2 especially in pro level.
It’s like top players have similar level. But pretty sure Maru is ahead of anyone else atm.
And rest top players like Classic, Stats, sOs, Zest, TY, INnoVaton, GuMiho, Dark, Serral, Rogue, soO, Solar can still take out Maru depend on condition, map, and build orders.
We can probably safely conclude now that Zest should not be in the list. He simply can't take a map from Maru right now. The only time he got a map from Maru was when Maru got bored.
Every pros have strength and weakness depending on their styles and even tho Zest look rusty, he still made ro4 GSL and blizzcon in WCS Korea. His style is just weak vs Maru I guess. But I wouldn’t be surprised even if Zest beat Maru in bo 5 or 7 in next time.
i would really like to see region locking removed next year. then all this serral discussion will go away. either serral continues to dominate with no region locking, or he doesn't. but the debate would be settled. region locking is horrible. a player is good because they have competed against the very best. by region locking, that hasn't happened. serral did amazing in gsl vs the world, but that's a sample size of 1 tournament. him stomping foreigners? completely irrelevant. TY could've stomped all the foreigner tournaments as well but he got ranked lower
On October 06 2018 01:36 Vindicare605 wrote: Love the bit on Neeb, and people wonder why I don't believe in this kid?
Come on guys, he's an American, I'm an American, I should have every reason in the world to support him, but I don't.
How come? Because he just isn't legit. He lacks that X factor that make guys like Serral and Maru lethal. He lacks the pure raw talent of someone like Scarlett or Showtime where you can always speculate that they can get better. And he's a veteran, he's established he's not a bright shining unknown like Reynor who has nowhere to go except up.
He's at his peak, this is his final form. He's a challenger, but he isn't a contender. I'm not being a hater, I'm just stating the truth.
I give so little of a fuck about foreign sc2 that I've never watched a single wcs match properly, I was for sure a non-believer, but I've seen Serral play on his stream and vs koreans, he is exactly where he should be.
On October 06 2018 04:59 fishjie wrote: i would really like to see region locking removed next year. then all this serral discussion will go away. either serral continues to dominate with no region locking, or he doesn't. but the debate would be settled. region locking is horrible. a player is good because they have competed against the very best. by region locking, that hasn't happened. serral did amazing in gsl vs the world, but that's a sample size of 1 tournament. him stomping foreigners? completely irrelevant. TY could've stomped all the foreigner tournaments as well but he got ranked lower
Then we are back to Patience stomping all the foreigners. (just to trigger the serral fans, chuckle)
I agree with you. Based on the results from Neeb, Scarlett, Serral and Raynor. The foreigners isn't the same as it was before region locking. It would be nice to remove the region locking now. The destruction of SSL and ProLeague is enough damage to SC2 pro scene.
Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
but....they do ask koreans for balancing advice...
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
WHile he ilustrated why region lock is good, you missed the point of how it fucking hurts Korea. Everybody and their mom is hyping WCS, yaaaaaaaay.
WHAT ABOUT THE KOREA?"!!?!?!?!?
Everybody is ignoring this region. Now we had foreigners taking money from Koreans while Koreans can't leave the god damn country to take foreigner wellfare checks.
If you say A, then say B too, please.
Edit> Just made the text I find most ironic bold. Just saying how many newcomers we saw in GSL...
region lock is like a reverse robin hood, cause europeans are for sure much better off than koreans in terms of money, let's not even focus on dream land scandinavia.
Neither Gom nor Afreeca ever wanted a region lock for their own tournament ('cause global, you know). They just saw that their tournament gains in popularity when some foreigners qualify - the foreigner-cinderella vs holding-homeground story is interesting for both sides. Thus GSL actually benefits from no region-lock. And guess what? A well-off GSL is good for the korean scene.
region lock is like a reverse robin hood, cause europeans are for sure much better off than koreans in terms of money, let's not even focus on dream land scandinavia.
Well, explain that to the polish, ukranian and russian pros...
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
Ur logic is hilarious. Koreans had it "easier" before? When it was fair because everyone could compete for all the prize pool? Was there a law that prevented foreigners from going to Korea to practice on KR ? Or would it have just been too "inconvienant" for them? You think the struggling pros in KR would be crying about the inconvienance to go destroy wcs if they werent barred? Give me a fucking break. Building a foreign scene is important. Have we done that? Really? Or have we just glorified mediocrity while shrinking the top level scene? Any non bias fan honestly rather see nerchio heromarine has over inno gumi soo solar byun hero fuck i would give parting and taeja 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
Ur logic is hilarious. Koreans had it "easier" before? When it was fair because everyone could compete for all the prize pool? Was there a law that prevented foreigners from going to Korea to practice on KR ? Or would it have just been too "inconvienant" for them? You think the struggling pros in KR would be crying about the inconvienance to go destroy wcs if they werent barred? Give me a fucking break. Building a foreign scene is important. Have we done that? Really? Or have we just glorified mediocrity while shrinking the top level scene? Any non bias fan honestly rather see nerchio heromarine has over inno gumi soo solar byun hero fuck i would give parting and taeja 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon.
I'll take the 5:1 on Nerchio making it further than PartinG in the next tournament they both play, thanks.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
Ur logic is hilarious. Koreans had it "easier" before? When it was fair because everyone could compete for all the prize pool? Was there a law that prevented foreigners from going to Korea to practice on KR ? Or would it have just been too "inconvienant" for them? You think the struggling pros in KR would be crying about the inconvienance to go destroy wcs if they werent barred? Give me a fucking break. Building a foreign scene is important. Have we done that? Really? Or have we just glorified mediocrity while shrinking the top level scene? Any non bias fan honestly rather see nerchio heromarine has over inno gumi soo solar byun hero fuck i would give parting and taeja 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon.
I'll take the 5:1 on Nerchio making it further than PartinG in the next tournament they both play, thanks.
Lol - is that a joke poking at the fact that they wont ever play in a tournament together again ? Or you saying you think nerchio is going to look top notch at blizzcon?
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
Ur logic is hilarious. Koreans had it "easier" before? When it was fair because everyone could compete for all the prize pool? Was there a law that prevented foreigners from going to Korea to practice on KR ? Or would it have just been too "inconvienant" for them? You think the struggling pros in KR would be crying about the inconvienance to go destroy wcs if they werent barred? Give me a fucking break. Building a foreign scene is important. Have we done that? Really? Or have we just glorified mediocrity while shrinking the top level scene? Any non bias fan honestly rather see nerchio heromarine has over inno gumi soo solar byun hero fuck i would give parting and taeja 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon.
I'll take the 5:1 on Nerchio making it further than PartinG in the next tournament they both play, thanks.
Lol - is that a joke poking at the fact that they wont ever play in a tournament together again ? Or you saying you think nerchio is going to look top notch at blizzcon?
im saying that im ready to bet money, on 5:1 to odds, in any tournament, offline or online, the both aforementioned player play in.
On October 06 2018 23:36 Rodya wrote: Blizzard will never remove region lock because they're in love with the tier 3/tier 4 foreigner players. That's why they asked them for balancing advice and not the Koreans. Overrating players is the natural result of region lock by the way. Look at LoL: how many times in the games history have we had insane hype of a NA or EU player/team? Every single year we have multiple, because of region lock. NA team dominates region and then people start thinking they're as good as SKT.
At least in LoL that nonsense has died down but that's because their new players aren't getting involved in esports. In SC2 we have tons of noobs paying attention to WCS and offerring up their opinion. That is the cause of the Serral hype. Serral is a great player (the only foreigner who has hope), but these power rankings purport to be based on tournament results, and they aren't.
I like that you already showed why region lock is such a great idea, what you picture negatively (overhyping of worse players than koreans) just shows that the system works. People getting excited about foreign players, building fans who are into watching wcs and the players competing there. That's exactly the purpose of region locking, offering a product to more casual viewers and/or people who want to cheer for players who speak their own language or at least english and thus giving the players in these regions a chance to go pro.
Ahhh yeah bro very well said.. all that and just a few key points you missed tho.. welfare checks for foreigners while harder working better players in Korea get fucked over by facing all the best players in the world for the same amount of money foreigners who wouldnt even qualify for code S compete with eachother for.. slowing the evolution of the overall level of play for foreigners who only have to be good enough to beat other foreigners vs natural selection etc.. hopefully this repeat stompfest @ blizzcon will be the last time we dont get to see innovation / soO / gumiho / solar in the "world championship" while being treated to good old nerchio / has and heromarine.
I specifically talked about the notion he painted negatively, when it is in fact a positive (even though it might be wrong to hype them that hard, but for the scene it's a good thing). It's also not unfair to have specific competition's for a specific circle of players/teams and/or skill levels which then seeds into other competition. I mostly care about the korean scene myself, but doing the step to give foreign players a chance to become pro, give the foreign scene a chance to grow, etc was a good step. People can talk about unfairness as long as they want, no system is completely fair for everybody. Koreans had it easier before, living in the region which was best at developing your skill but still traveling to the other regions and get the prize money there. Now foreigners have it easier because that's not possible anymore. It mostly depends on your priorities here, what situation you prefer. i think trying to build a foreign scene is overall better for the sc2 scene even if it makes it harder for koreans compared to before.
Ur logic is hilarious. Koreans had it "easier" before? When it was fair because everyone could compete for all the prize pool? Was there a law that prevented foreigners from going to Korea to practice on KR ? Or would it have just been too "inconvienant" for them? You think the struggling pros in KR would be crying about the inconvienance to go destroy wcs if they werent barred? Give me a fucking break. Building a foreign scene is important. Have we done that? Really? Or have we just glorified mediocrity while shrinking the top level scene? Any non bias fan honestly rather see nerchio heromarine has over inno gumi soo solar byun hero fuck i would give parting and taeja 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon.
I'll take the 5:1 on Nerchio making it further than PartinG in the next tournament they both play, thanks.
Lol - is that a joke poking at the fact that they wont ever play in a tournament together again ? Or you saying you think nerchio is going to look top notch at blizzcon?
im saying that im ready to bet money, on 5:1 to odds, in any tournament, offline or online, the both aforementioned player play in.
Ah i see lolo so i said 5 to 1 to make it further at blizzcon..and since parting wont be there thatll be pretty difficult to measure. Tickles me though that one is part of the best the foreign scene has to offer (world championship potential) and the other just barely managed to qualify for competition in Korea and 5 to 1 does seem pretty fair.
On October 07 2018 13:48 fronkschnonk wrote: Neither Gom nor Afreeca ever wanted a region lock for their own tournament ('cause global, you know). They just saw that their tournament gains in popularity when some foreigners qualify - the foreigner-cinderella vs holding-homeground story is interesting for both sides. Thus GSL actually benefits from no region-lock. And guess what? A well-off GSL is good for the korean scene.
region lock is like a reverse robin hood, cause europeans are for sure much better off than koreans in terms of money, let's not even focus on dream land scandinavia.
Well, explain that to the polish, ukranian and russian pros...
It's not good for the Korean scene in the long term as there's no new blood. The new blood has to beat old returning pros(e.g. Parting, Taeja), the current Korean pros(selfexplanatory) and then all the foreign thieves who are stealing their job & money. While if a foreigner fails, they still have WCS... What. Does. The. New. Korean. Plaer. Has. ?????
Please, tell me. Where are we growing the Korean scene? Enlighten me!
On October 07 2018 13:48 fronkschnonk wrote: Neither Gom nor Afreeca ever wanted a region lock for their own tournament ('cause global, you know). They just saw that their tournament gains in popularity when some foreigners qualify - the foreigner-cinderella vs holding-homeground story is interesting for both sides. Thus GSL actually benefits from no region-lock. And guess what? A well-off GSL is good for the korean scene.
region lock is like a reverse robin hood, cause europeans are for sure much better off than koreans in terms of money, let's not even focus on dream land scandinavia.
Well, explain that to the polish, ukranian and russian pros...
It's not good for the Korean scene in the long term as there's no new blood. The new blood has to beat old returning pros(e.g. Parting, Taeja), the current Korean pros(selfexplanatory) and then all the foreign thieves who are stealing their job & money. While if a foreigner fails, they still have WCS... What. Does. The. New. Korean. Plaer. Has. ?????
Please, tell me. Where are we growing the Korean scene? Enlighten me!
I see the problem but I don't think that excluding foreigners from GSL will help at all with this. If foreigners wouldn't have been in the recent qualifiers there wouldn't have been new blood to replace them. Trust, Byul, Patience, Bunny, Ragnarok, herO, Hurricane were kicked out by foreigners - all oldschool veterans. The only rookie that got eliminated by a foreigner was actually Rookie
All that could help would be some kind of B-League, like Code A back in the day. I totally would support skipping GSL vs The World and spending the money on such a league instead. But just changing the format won't bring fresh blood to Korean SC2.