EPT1)
oGsMC![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/d/db/Irongsl3.png)
The BossToss. The Protoss President. The Kratoss Protoss. MC has returned, and looks like a beast. After a disappointing middle of the year descent into mediocrity, the 2base King has returned and is looking for blood.
He dropped out of GSL entirely after losing 1-2 to a relatively unknown Code A player,
Monster, who had done nothing of note before this series and has done nothing much since. Since then, MC blitzed through MLG Orlando, only finally being halted by HuK, who had a 2-1 lead on him from Group stages. His re-entry into Code S took him through the Group stages with two dominating wins over 
Ryung but he was halted by sC in the Ro16.After that? Only coming 3rd/4th in the Blizzard Cup, the prestigious GSL round-up to the year.
But enough of his results. The most interesting side to a player is his, well, play. MC's PvT has looked solid since forever, with only
PuMa's 1-1-1 and MVP's Marine/Tank play early game exposing flaws in it. But then, nobody looked solid against these.PvP? His highest winrate, with over 75%, but most of those are from a long time ago. These days, he consistently wins most games, but still loses to players like Mana, Inori and HuK on a regular basis. Suffice to say, PvP is no longer MC's pride and joy, but then there really is no PvP king at the moment.
And PvZ? Hmm. It looked really stagnant and dull until recently, with his timings and strategy being figured out. However, upon his most recent return to Korea, MC has practised his ass off, it seems. He has invented new(er) timing attacks, plays far more map-dependant and still throws everyone a curveball at times (Carriers, in a semi-final? Really?). But the money question is: will it last? Honestly, I don't think so. Over time, players will figure out his new timings, just like they did his old ones and things like the FFE -> 4gate Zealot +1 timing. He will have to continually redefine and reshape his timing attacks, or else switch to a different playstyle altogether. But, at the time of writing, he seems to have recovered his mojo at least, and currently tops the Protoss leaderboard.
2)
FXOz![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/d/dc/Ozgstlpxp.png)
The Wizard of Oz!
A relative nobody going into GSL October, Oz surprised everyone except, seemingly, the FXO house, going nearly undefeated on his road to the finals, dropping only 2 games in 4 sets, and destroying a hapless
Sage in PvP. From there, he looked set to take on Curious in a furious head to head battle......which he lost 0-4. He must have lost heart, not been feeling well, or just died inside. Curious rolled him. It was one of those sets where the score really does reflect the games.
Since then, he somehow pulled out all the stops and pulled off some impressive PvT in both GSL and WCG Prelims, doing really well in both. Eventually he was stopped by, well, MVP in WCG (no comment) and by
Jjakji in GSL. It seems ironic to me that Oz first posted good results and won as a complete unknown, and was then defeated by the guy in the Ro4 who was not... well, known.These are Oz's only real accomplishments, but that is not what I find impressive. It's the creativity, the gamesense and the raw skill that make Oz a joy to watch and highly deserving of No. 2 on my Protoss Power Ranking. His PvP is crisp and his originality prompted a thread or two here in TL's strategy section. His PvT is up there right behind MC, with only his small sample size preventing him from being hailed as one of the best in the world. And PvZ? Nobody in GSL is good at PvZ.
3)
Puzzle![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/8/85/Zerogstl.png)
A pretty obvious choice. After a dominating run through Code A, beating Jjakji's teammate
Tassadar in GSL July, Puzzle only really achieved a great deal of fame when his APM allegedly reached over 700 in a PvZ. He also reached the Ro8 in the most recent GSL before being annihilated by the eventual winner of the tournament (Jjakji).However, look beyond these results. Perhaps it was just because he was in Code A, but he used to look really scary. Now, being in Code S has made him look like just another damn good player, but nothing special. This change from terrifying to standard magically coincided with his switch to SlayerS, which leads me to draw another conclusion:
The SlayerS team have really good Terrans (obviously), but their coaching for Zerg and Protoss is not just mediocre, it is abysmal. If I concluded this only from Puzzle's lack of domination in Code S I would be foolish, but I do not: Alicia was heralded as the next best Protoss, but he fell by the wayside swiftly after a couple of appearances. Coca apparently had the best ZvP in the world, but, we can't really see that any more - although I would make Coca the exception.
But it's not so much specific examples of poor Zerg or Protoss players which make me think this: it is more the lack of really good Zerg or Protoss players compared to Terrans. Go, look at their "notable" player roster. The proportions of Z/P/T are pretty equal. But then look at their results, and their current form. SlayerS literally has 3 decent non-Terrans in GSL at the moment - and one of them is
YuGiOh.So how much of Puzzle's recent lack of confidence can be attributed to him, and how much to the team? I don't know, but either way, he hasn't shown the quality of play or the results of MC or Oz.
4)
HuK![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/9/98/Hukcodeatig.png)
Maybe this is a controversial one - after all, Huk's never done fabulously in GSL, and is definitely one of the most inconsistent and streaky members of a very inconsistent and streaky race. No Protoss player has retained utter dominance of their race in SC2 so far, not to the extent of MVP or Nestea. But even with that in mind, it can't be denied: HuK has big swings up and down. At his best, he conquered MLG Orlando, dropping a total of 5 games over the tournament including the group stages. He won 4 series of PvP against world-class players while only dropping 1 (and that was a tense 2-1), and given how infamously coinflippy PvP appears to be this shows a remarkable sense of stability and consistency.
And here we get to the main issue with HuK - he is so... strange. He feels like a Dark Horse in every tournament he enters, with a chance of doing really well or performing abysmally. Put it down to jetlag, practice or steroids, there's no denying that HuK has a very different feel to his play than any other Protoss. He can show periods of stability and then go lose to
DarKFoRcE in an obscure EU tournament. He can dominate MC (who has a 75% winrate PvP - in Korea) and then lose 4-1 to elfi in Finland.Because of this weird side to HuK, he can't be in the Top 3, and unless he suddenly becomes either a) far more consistent or b) plays godly games, I don't think he ever will be. That doesn't mean he's bad - at times he has been startlingly creative, he is always loveable and will without doubt leave his mark on the scene. But he's one of the few players I don't think has a chance of rising up like
Leenock has and dominating.But then, I've been wrong before. Speaking of which, here's number 5:
5)
NaNiwa![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/f/f8/Nanimlgdall2011.png)
If HuK was a controversial 4, this will almost certainly be a controversial 5.
Until MLG Providence, I thought Naniwa was another
SaSe: one of the best foreigners, but with no hopes of going deep and making an impact. I thought ThorZaIN would always remain in the spotlight over Naniwa, and I even thought his play might go through a phase of being an embarassment to all our foreigner hopes.How fucking wrong I was.
At Providence, he turned up for the Invitational along such august company as
IdrA, MVP and NesTea. Of the four players, Naniwa had the lowest chance of winning by a large margin. I won't mince words: Naniwa was expected to roll over and die and MVP would win yet another tournament. He didn't. Instead, he displayed some great games, and most of all, something we rarely see often from any team other than SlayerS: game preparation that was as clear as a Nydus worm's eruption.Naniwa exploited MVP's weaknesses. Just like the somewhat famous go.go's games vs Bisu in BW (which I wasn't around for, unfortunately), Naniwa found that MVP played too safe and too standard against relatively unknown players. Naniwa played greedily, expanding early and teching quickly, while MVP did not make the killing blow several times when he had the chance. That is not to say that it was easy - both players were jetlagged, and the games were all fairly close at points, but Naniwa suddenly looked, by the third game, like he had an edge against the best player in the world.
And against Nestea, most of what happened is well known: Naniwa played quite a safe style, and on the most part waited for Nestea to slip up. And slip up Professor Tea did. It looked like Nestea had botched it, but I'm going to go out on a limb here, and many people will disagree with me here: I'm going to say that Naniwa prepared for Nestea just as much as he did for MVP.
Naniwa knew that both he and Nestea would be jetlagged (they were on the same plane, after all!). He knew that the games would not be a challenge to see who could be the most daring, the most inventive or the most cunning. He knew that the winner would be the player who made fewer mistakes. So he played in a way which used and abused that fact, playing as standard and secure as he could, and in the struggle managed to gain victory. ThorZain might be known for his preparation and planning, but it seems Naniwa has learned more than just mental fortitude from his TSL 3 defeat.
Then there's the main tournament itself. Naniwa would once again face Nestea, and once again Nestea would let Naniwa's psi-blades beneath his previously impervious chitinous plating. How? My best guess is that the games were not just of SC2; they were of nerves and a battle between their states of mind. Nestea had already lost to Naniwa, and has a history of losing consistently to people who have beaten him before (hello, MVP!). While many other players can come back after a defeat and learn from their mistakes, I hypothise that Nestea was so used to crushing scrub foreigners that he did not know how to take it. The pausing probably didn't help, but I'm going to steer clear of that particular can of worms.
From there onwards, Naniwa grasped victory from HuK, then somehow beat a ZvP beast,
DRG, and ultimately apparently had a mental breakdown in the finals against Leenock. But a 2nd place finish in a stacked tournament takes you out of foreigner scrub-land, in my books at least, and into the realm of heroes.Let's face it: at Providence, Naniwa was on fire. But what next? Nothing, that's what. Blizzcup was a disaster, with Nani not getting a single map. While some games were close, he did not have a hope of getting through. Presumably, that's why he did what he did: for more information, go through the Automated Ban List and check the threads people were banned for.
Naniwa is a tentative number 5. I wanted to see how he would do in Code S, but I guess now we'll see how he'll do in Code A. I want him to do well in GSL - after all, the format rewards planning, and I've already placed my bets on planning being Naniwa's strength. He didn't do so well before, but I think Naniwa has the potential to be one of the best if he can get into the right mindset.
6)
HerO![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/1/15/Herogstl-tig.png)
OK, this is TeamLiquid.net, so there was no way HerO could be outside of the Top 10. I know people will wonder why this guy is below Naniwa, and below Huk. HerO has a winning record against HuK, doesn't he? HerO's won more and proved himself more than Naniwa, hasn't he?
To put it simply, I think HerO is overrated. Don't get me wrong: he has some of the best micro in the game, and sometimes I watch him play PvZ and think suddenly
Bisu has switched to SC2 (yes, that is hyperbole - please don't jump on me BW fanatics!). But he has two big flaws in his play:1) He has far too variable PvT.
2) His play is too cutesy.
For the first one, let me explain: it looks like HerO tries to play PvT like his PvZ, all small bunches of units, aggression and odd unit compositions. But this leads to really weird scenarios where sometimes he just fails. Completely. Like, suddenly he looks absolutely mediocre. Luckily, he doesn't always do this and can pull it all together at events like Dreamhack and 4-3 one of the scariest TvPers outside of Code S in probably the second most epic series of PvT I've seen yet in SC2.
But even then, HerO just figuratively faceplanted in some of the games. Game 6: Goes for a fast Nexus, then just outright dies to what he calls a "cheese rush" after the tournament is over. I suspect it was just a mistranslation, or else "cheese" means something a bit different in Korea (more than likely), but either way, it did not go by my understanding of cheese. Puma saw the fast Nexus and reacted to it by throwing down a bunch of barracks. It wasn't a blind rush, it was specifically designed to outright kill a fast Nexus. It worked, and HerO looked really fragile because of it.
Unlike Naniwa vs Leenock in MLG, this was not a simple case of not scouting well enough or feeling safer than he was. HerO just did not have enough stuff to kill Puma's forces, and died because of it. And I think that sums up HerO's PvT in general: sometimes tense and fun, at other times he just looks like he's playing the wrong matchup.
As for number 2, it's simple. He has a really engaging, fun and micro-intensive playstyle, but that is a downside as well. His style looked fresh for a time, and is still jawdropping, but it doesn't look immortal any more. Unlike MC, who acts like a hungry shark out for fresh surfer breakfast, HerO seems more like an overly aggressive seagull. Fast, annoying and if you are very unlucky quite deadly (story for another time), but not tough enough to truly make the cut. His style looks cool and works in certain matchups at certain times, but looks to ultimately have the same problem as DRG's old ZvT, which consisted solely of fast 2base Lair into Mutas - once you know what to look for, the playstyle can be "solved". For instance, the 4gate +1 Zealot timing after a fast Nexus was solved by timing the Roach Warren so that 12 or more Roaches were out and ready to acidify the attack at the right timing. However, while this timing can be solved and then more will crop up, HerO will have to completely reinvent his style at times in order to remain competitive, which is not quite so easy.
He also has a problem with nerves in Korea, it seems. But that can be solved, as long as he can switch his mentallity around. I also know very little about exactly what makes him nervous, so I can't really comment at length on it. Suffice to say, that's another issue he faces.
In summary: cutesy, fun, skilful and definitely awesome to watch, but not a true contender for the throne of Protoss.
7)
Brown![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/1/14/Brown.jpg/220px-Brown.jpg)
I'm guessing a few people will be wondering why a guy with only 9 games played is 7th on a Power Rank. And this is where the Power Rank gets subjective. For Protoss pros at least, there are a clear well-known Top 5 or 6. But after that, there are so many notables who aren't quite there yet that any choice will be almost completely opinion on play. And my opinion on Brown's play is that it is really good.
Currently on a 6 game win streak, Brown has not faced the toughest opponents in the one Code A he played in, but they are also by no means the weakest.
LosirA is (or was, at least) a ZvP specialist. Ryung has looked lost against the top Protosses in TvP for a while, but he is a SlayerS Terran, almost a synonym for "tough" in Korea, and he doesn't have any issues with mid-tier Protoss. Brown has lost a total of 2 games ever, and those were in May. In a PvP. Brown is one of only 3 players (the others being SuperNova and fOrGG) this year to go through all of Code A without losing a game.But it is not so much the stats which make Brown look good - after all, stats don't say much with only 9 games, and only 6 recent games. It is more the flair and intelligence with which Brown plays which sets him apart from the rest. Ever since Khaldor and Moletrap announced in a game vs Losira that Brown was playing terribly and letting Losira win, and Brown followed that up by annihilating Losira, I took notice of Brown's playstyle.
He seems to play PvZ in a similar way to HuK, trying to take fast thirds on relatively low tech/army, and then go from there. This contrasts heavily with the MC/Naniwa style of play, which stays on 2 bases for far longer and tries to get some tech up before a 3rd. But whereas HuK then goes for some Gateway/Twilight council shenanigans, Brown goes for heavy tech AFTER a 3rd, while playing defensively. This goes on the confident assumption that he can beat Zerg in the lategame - an assumption no other Protoss seems willing to make in televised matches. The Infestor/Broodlord deathball has caused a lot of problems in ZvP of late, but Brown's reliance on a heavy switch in Stargate play, including the Mothership, looks really solid and really unique.
As for PvT? Well, he outplayed Ryung. In 2 games he just looked better than Ryung in almost every way. Ryung went for some weird plays in both games, and made more mistakes than Brown. Similar to Naniwa vs Nestea/MVP, Brown won not because his own play was sparkly or fancy, but because it was sound. With only 2 games, it is hard to conclude much about Brown's PvT, other than "it doesn't suck like
JYP's". And PvP, we've not seen any recent stuff from him, but then PvP is pretty much a micro/positioning battle at the moment. And in both other matchups, Brown's micro and positioning looks top notch.Like Naniwa earlier on, Brown is a number 7 more out of potential than just from results at the moment.
8)
Sage![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fgZDv.jpg)
Sorry for the massive image, I couldn't find a smaller one.
Sage. Artosis' 4th mancrush. The BrainToss.
This guy emerged onto the scene a while back, in July, all-killing team fOu (now Korean FXO). He defeated asd, sC (now on MVP) and then Leenock, as well as an unknown Sirius in a crazy PvP involving a lot of Phoenix.
Everyone knows this guy's PvZ style - a lot of Phoenix, multitasking, Chargelots et al. Similar to HerO, except Sage's actually works consistently in Korea. Sage's PvT also works in a similar way, with Phoenix a frequent sight. However, his PvP has let him down. He has a 40% winrate in the matchup, and considering that the sometimes coinflippy nature of PvP naturally draws winrates closer to 50%, this low percentage means more here than it might for PvZ or PvT.
Still: he has shown excellent play, crisp decision making and a style of play that suits the "new wave" of Protoss, including HerO, Sage, JYP etc.
But he just can't break in Code S. As already mentioned, he came into the scene in July, and STILL hasn't made it to Code S once yet. It seems like there's some curse against it: Oz slaughtered him in a one-sided Code A finals, an Oz who would then make it to the semifinals of Code S. In November, he was out in the first round to a nerd-stomping fOrGG, the hope for Brood War elitists everywhere. But still, excuses or no, he just has not posted the results to be in the Top 5. Perhaps it's unfair: after all, HerO is higher, and he's been even more lacklustre in GSL. The difference is, unfortunately, that HerO has had the opportunity to show his true colours in foreign tournaments, and that makes a big change to my perceptions of his skill level.
I will say that of all the players in the Protoss Power Rank, Sage looks to be the most consistent. Perhaps not consistently excellent, but he doesn't seem to have complete mindfucks like HuK, or deep slumps like MC. Of all the players, Sage is the one I expect to still be on the Power Rank 6 months from now, still beating his way through Code A.
9) Parting
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/4/42/PartinG.jpg)
To give you some idea of how new this guy is, the TLPD button for posting doesn't work for his name. Instead, it takes you to some obscure BW Zerg player. ST_Parting made it to Code A in the most recent GSL, beating BBongBBong in the prelims and then comfortably 2-1ing
TOP in a PvT, before crushing another of Artosis' dreams, the one and only Cliiiiiiiiiiiiide. SangHo was then toppled for Parting to make it through to Code S.Parting has a similarly small sample size to Brown, but the difference here is that Parting has not looked as indomitable. While Brown's record is 7-2, Parting's is 9-7. So while Parting did make it to Code S, he did not do so in such a strong fashion as Brown.
Aside from Clide, Parting also had relatively easy opponents. TOP just looked bad after his Finals appearance against MVP, there's just no way round it, and TOP always had mediocre TvP to start with. SangHo is one of the old crowd of Protosses - along with HongUn, San and InCa, SangHo is a Protoss who was lucky to make it to Code S, showed some decent results once in Code S and then got lucky again for a while, somehow beating
Polt in one of the most disappointing TvPs the former TvP master ever played. While SangHo is probably still a level above a number of foreigners, he only shows good games every once in a while. It was no surprise that Parting could defeat SangHo, but even then it was a tight 2-1.To summarise: relatively unknown, looks pretty good, shown some good games, knows what he's doing. Deserves to be in Code S, but I never expect him to get out of the Ro16.
10)
MaNa![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/7/74/MaNa.jpg)
"WHAT?!" I hear you cry, "a foreigner who has never played in the GSL, in the Top 10?!" To which I calmly respond, "take your pills and hear me out".
I would have liked to put any number of Protosses living in Korea in Top 10 - SaSe, JYP, InCa, Genius. But all of them have gaping flaws:
SaSe's highlight to his career was defeating a slumping Bomber at MLG. And that's about it. JYP... well, take a look at this. You can't be a Top 10 Protoss while on a 14 loss streak, however godly your PvP and PvZ might be. InCa... well, have you ever heard of the InCa rule? Genius... one good Up/Down Stage session isn't enough, and Genius has managed to fail in the few foreigner tournaments he's entered with the exception of Blizzcon.So here we are. Mana somehow in the Top 10 of Protosses. But by no means is Mana a substitute, a placeholder for a decent Protoss to come along and show us how it's done: Mana has been really good for over a year, coming second at the first ever Dreamhack Winter SC2 tournament.
Dreamhack always manages to be good for Mana - in Assembly Summer 2011, Mana went 6-1 in the Group Stages against such prestigious opposition as HuK, before beating
NaDa 2-0 and ending up second.Just as Dreamhack success is a continuing theme for Mana, so is coming runner-up. In IPL 2, he came 3rd to
White-Ra and Nerchio. Look at his Liquipedia page - look at the medals.More recently, Mana has 2-0d MC (75% winrate) at ESWC, coming 2nd to a rising
Stephano. At IEM Cologne IV, he 2-0ed Puma, SaSe and 2-1ed Stephano, eventually coming 3rd.Spot the pattern here? Great play for most of the tournament, before faltering at the last hurdle. And these are the 2 reasons why Mana is not higher on the Power Rank: He has never played in Korea, and he has a record of coming 2nd or 3rd. He has proved himself against some Koreans, but always on his home ground, always when the odds are with him.
Still, my prediction for Mana: If he ever takes the leap and goes to Korea, he could shoot up the Power Rank faster than an Oracle on crack.
. I always use one for BW anyway.
