EPT
What they seem to forget - or not realise, is that, while BWC was the World Championship, it was not quite to designed to crown the "Best player in the world".
To quote myself:
On November 19 2012 06:09 Zealously wrote:
I think the problem is that people think of BWC as a standalone event while it in fact was not - WCS Sweden, Germany, France, Korea, Europe, Asia (and so on) were all stepping stones for the players to get to BWC, and it is easy to argue that some of those events (particularly WCS Korea and Asia) were in fact tougher than BWC itself.
The "best players" (Mvp and MC excluded, okay) all tried to get to BWC, but most didn't make it. Is that good or bad for the end result? Most seem to think the distinct lack of Mvp and co. made BWC less legit. To me, it was more of a testament to how insanely hard it is to stay at the top of the scene.
I think the problem is that people think of BWC as a standalone event while it in fact was not - WCS Sweden, Germany, France, Korea, Europe, Asia (and so on) were all stepping stones for the players to get to BWC, and it is easy to argue that some of those events (particularly WCS Korea and Asia) were in fact tougher than BWC itself.
The "best players" (Mvp and MC excluded, okay) all tried to get to BWC, but most didn't make it. Is that good or bad for the end result? Most seem to think the distinct lack of Mvp and co. made BWC less legit. To me, it was more of a testament to how insanely hard it is to stay at the top of the scene.
And I think it's as simple as that. The scene, with the Korean scene largely separated from the foreign scene, is not built around finding a "Best player in the world". It's all subjective, with different people having different views - players, casters and fans all disagree with each other on who is the best player in the world. The thing is, it's hard to decide who is the "Best player" as long as that person is not something similar to a bonjwa, dominating dozens of events, because players - and I mean the best ones, prioritize differently. Taeja, for example, loves to play in the most foreign events he can, whereas Nestea (who might not be as relevant right now, but the point stands) prefers to remain in Korea and diligently prepare for his matches.
What I'm trying to say is that, with a separated scene, we can never really determine who is really "the best".
Obviously Koreans go to foreign events, but the players on teams with lesser funds or those not interested in traveling because they don't handle jet lag well / have exclusive deals as well as the lesser known players don't. This doesn't really go both ways, though - we rarely see foreigners in GSTL or Code A, let alone Code S.
So, what about WCS?
Well, I liked the idea of Nationals, Continentals and then the World Finals - I think the idea holds a lot of potential. Especially with the KeSPA players participating in Korea, we were allowed to see the entirety of the Korean scene duke it out against each other for the sought after spots at WCS Asia; and short of Mvp and MC who both forfeited their spots, everyone tried their best.
I don't think anyone discredits Parting's road to his championship (He went through sC, Alive, Curious three times, Seed, Macsed, RorO, two different Hero's, Socke, Illusion, Scarlett, Suppy, Sen and finally Creator), but Partings (relative) lack of results up to the BWC seems to make people reluctant to call him "The best player in the world".
Honestly, I agree. The point of BWC and the entire WCS was never necessarily to crown a "best player in the world" given how, as I mentioned, subjective the term is, but to crown a World Champion. There is a significant difference.
In swimming, for example - at the 2008 Olympics, few would dispute that Michael Phelps was the world's best swimmer by far. If he had lost a race, or three, it would still be hard to argue that he was not the best in the world.
The point is, you don't need a World Championship to your name to be crowned the best in the world, just as having the title "World Champion" to your name does not make you the undisputable best player. Some scenes may be built around the World Championship meaning everything, but Starcraft in general is not. Some will tell you IPL5 will decide who is the best player in the world, but what if Shuttle wins it, and Innovation wins GSL? What then?
In conclusion
I think that, aside from hyping up your favorite player and just wanting to argue with random, faceless individuals on the internet, trying to decide who is the best player in this point is pointless. People will disagree and say that you're stupid for thinking Leenock is better than Life, or that Mvp is not the best player in the world, but that doesn't matter. At this point, with the meta still rather volatile and the game not even being finalized yet (keep in mind we have two expansions and a gazillion patches coming up), there will never be a consensus.
World Champion or not.
