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After checking out the brand new power rank, I was very depressed by the general crappiness of everybody who is not flash. From the way games have been going in the last few months, there is no S-class anymore. Bisu's mentally not there anymore, Stork randomly loses to every other scrub thrown at him and Jaedong is just... he's not at peak condition.
There's almost no other players besides flash right now I would even venture to call solid. These guys all have glaaaaaaring holes in their play...
Players like Effort (who used to be a ZvT god) now loses to any noob who happens to play Terran. That he used to be considered part of the mythic "S-Class" seems almost absurd now.
Stork, the commander, loses to hydra busts way more often than he should. So what if he can beat flash with a crazy build... he still loses to
+ Show Spoiler +
in a straight-up game.
Bisu has lost the balls to play tricky, and people left and right abuse that fact..
Meanwhile Jaedong's playstyle is now too well-understood for him to win consistently in anything but a Bo5. As far as aggressive players go, this guy rages with the best of the Berserker and July, but to really stay at the top of the scene of starcraft, you need a stable management style I so rarely see from JD these days.
On the other hand, potential rising stars like Baby and, hell why not just say MvP show striking potential in their ability to take games off the best, the consistency of their play is anything but reassuring. It's hard to have confidence in a guy when you wonder if a lurker glitch hadn't happened, if would've even qualified for the OSL.
While MVP in 2 of his games last night showed brilliant play...
+ Show Spoiler +
Letting his opponents double-nex, to which he responded with double-CC behind mines. Abusing his knowledge that Stork and Best would likely play it safe, he scraped himself back into the game economically.... And then he suddenly adds like 50 facts when his opponent expands...
This ability of gaining a slight economic advantage in TvP and transitioning it into an instant win is something I haven't yet seen an answer to. I'd very much look forward to this kid's sick PvT in the future, but I don't know how well he'll fair once his opponents stop underestimating him and deny that initial economic surge.
Since we're talking about Terrans, why not talk about the proleague monsters Light and Sea. They might be able to stomp noobs left and right in pro-league, but they lose to nobodies in individual leagues... literally all the time.
Ever since Shine burned through last year's leagues, it's been apparent that in the pro starcraft scene basically anybody can take convincing games off of anybody else... While this may drive competition and generally improve the quality of gameplay, it has become much more difficult to forge the legends we so desperately look for.
Until then, I suppose, we have Flash.
 
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I think you are confusing S class with the B word.
A teamers should be able to be S classers. The only thing stopping S classes from all entering the exalted status is that they have these small holes that always just keep them from dominating. Stork still has a 60% win ratio. That's extremely high. When he goes into a match in his mind he can say "Statistically speaking, I will probably win this game" That's pretty sweet.
You mention light and sea doing really well in WL but then losing to lesser players in individual leagues. It is the S classes who get 3 all kills, the S classes who clean up a tied match up in the final game. Again, A teamers can and should always have a chance to beat the S class, but you don't see the regular A teamers having crushing runs against S class players. (Save for baby lol)
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But I understand your sentiment and it's worthwhile to explore the idea which is essentially this:
In the past , a select few could spike up and be much better than everyone else
(This is good for the E sport as a commodity, for the audience, we can have heros to cheer for / against)
Now, the overall level of play has risen, many players all at a very high level, making it almost impossible to spike out.
(This is good for the growth E sport itself and it's players, but not necessarily as something people want to see if it seems like anyone can win at random)
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I think Jaedong has been playing a management style for quite some time now. I actually wish he would play more out-of-control mutalisk aggression games... I suspect the reason he hasn't been as dominant in ZvZ since last summer is this shift.
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I think there is still an "S-Class" but they're not unbeatable. Effort has slumped since his previous form, but Stork is still up there and I would still consider JD S-Class...
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Vatican City State2594 Posts
I agree because it's not just the downfall of the stars of old and the rise of new - it's just a lack of consistency from everyone, an affliction that affects the stars at the top as much (if not more, in Bisu's case) as everyone else.
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Look at Stork's wins/losses over the past few months. It's pretty disappointing. And I still think JD is good, but his style is so well-understood that basically anybody with the requisite mechanics and with a targeted build can snipe him in a Bo1. His play just doesn't have the "look ten steps ahead" kind of big-picture beauty that it used to...
On April 05 2010 02:49 Murderotica wrote:
I agree because it's not just the downfall of the stars of old and the rise of new - it's just a lack of consistency from everyone, an affliction that affects the stars at the top as much (if not more, in Bisu's case) as everyone else.
This.
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or maybe there is a S-class, just blash is bonjwa?
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On April 05 2010 02:55 YPang wrote:
or maybe there is a S-class, just blash is bonjwa?
?
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there is a new class in town SS class Flash
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On April 05 2010 03:05 KingofHearts wrote:
there is a new class in town SS class Flash
Oh.... So you mean like SSlash and YPang meant BonjwaFlash -> Blash. Ok.
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I think with the creation/resurgence of many spot-or-die builds, (such as carrier tech switches, one base siege mode against zerg, 4 gate goon, abnormally fast 2 hatch lurker, very aggressive dropship/shuttle play, <9 Pool, proxy hatchery, etc) the top players are finding it hard adjusting to such an environment.
Of course, the only person who isn't struggling right now is Flash and that's because he has maphacks 
I'm 90% certain there are more cheesy, all in, only-works-if-opponent-doesn't-see-it type of builds being used this season. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen surprise carriers being used this much since the era of two base carriers.
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These builds are so common nowadays... It's basically all I ever see on iccup in PvZ at D level.
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Vatican City State2594 Posts
PvZ at D levels isn't really reflective of the scene at the top in terms of trends or the strategic developments. "Spot-or-die" builds are what players do against others of the same or higher caliber (most of the time), because the superior player will usually win a straight-up confrontation. You have to put yourself at an advantage to win against a better player. Bisu shows this tendency to play safely because of that, and he has been suffering for it because even if he is (or was) the better player because of it was well. Players at the top are getting figured out the same as they have been for a while, with Flash being the exception because he has the skills for late-game and a survival capability that is greater than the harassment ability of most players he has been facing (he is often coming back from a disadvantage because most players know they have to throw him off his game in order to stand a chance). Jaedong is suffering from this, as are the other former top players. Yea, it's probably true that the scrubs of yesterday are stepping up their game. But it's also true that Bisu/Jaedong/Stork and other former tops (Effort, Fantasy, Best, JangBi, Luxury, Calm... etc. etc.) are not as adept at being resilient to this upsurge, which has been constant for all of progaming. Why are the bonjwas so distinct? Because they were the most resilient at the top - there was no one who could rival them and it seemed far less likely for seemingly underachieving progamers to take games from them.
On top of all this, Bisu is on paid vacation, Jaedong is sick, talk of playing too much SC2 or Farmville or whatever... All possible reasons as well. I suspect that SC2 is a major contributor, because progamers have to be ready to transition, and whoever starts out ahead at the dawn of SC2 is a person who will be paid for it. This is their life, their career - they have to be ready to evolve with the scene if necessary. I feel like practicing SC2 right now to them is smart for their career. Sure there is money in SC still, but look - MSL has no sponsor, SC2 just went full public in Korea... Money is about to be elsewhere.
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EPT
