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So the "elephants" didn't dominate SC2 after all

Blogs > Akara12345
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Akara12345
Profile Blog Joined July 2016
164 Posts
April 02 2017 16:00 GMT
#1
I was digging some old stuff and came across the "elephants in the room" article, which was basically about how KeSPA players would've done if they had switched to SC2. I then googled the best SC2 players and found this list. Only Soulkey at 19th can really be considered an "elephant". Quite interesting. Now what if the best SC2 players go back to BW though?

*
ninazerg
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States7291 Posts
April 02 2017 16:16 GMT
#2
Like Innovation, soO, etc.? They've already played Brood War against the best. After not practicing for so long, I would expect similar results to that which they've posted in the past.
"If two pregnant women get into a fist fight, it's like a mecha-battle between two unborn babies." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16010 Posts
April 02 2017 16:17 GMT
#3
Zest, Inno, Rain, soO, sOs are also "elephants".

If sc2 players would go back to BW they would obviously instantly dominate.
Just look at Flash, he couldn't make it past the ro16 in the GSL but in BW he's still the best player.
That clearly indicates that in the current sc2 scene there are at least 15-20 players who could switch to BW and instantly dominate the scene.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
The_Red_Viper
Profile Blog Joined August 2013
19533 Posts
April 02 2017 16:29 GMT
#4
While it was wrong about the big BW stars like Jaedong, Flash, Bisu, etc dominating in the end the kespa players clearly were the superior players as a whole. Just look at the GSL results after the kespa switch.

The list you used as reference is done by a single guy and even though i like stuchiu's content in general it's still only the view of one writer which obviously makes it biased to some extent. Personally i disagree quite heavily with his priorities for the ranking.

IU | Sohyang || There is no God and we are his prophets | For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.” | Ignorance is the parent of fear |
rotta
Profile Joined December 2011
5596 Posts
April 02 2017 16:46 GMT
#5
Only one non-elephant on that 2-year-old list who's still relevant, so yeah...
don't wall off against random
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16010 Posts
April 02 2017 17:08 GMT
#6
On April 03 2017 01:29 The_Red_Viper wrote:
While it was wrong about the big BW stars like Jaedong, Flash, Bisu, etc dominating in the end the kespa players clearly were the superior players as a whole. Just look at the GSL results after the kespa switch.

The list you used as reference is done by a single guy and even though i like stuchiu's content in general it's still only the view of one writer which obviously makes it biased to some extent. Personally i disagree quite heavily with his priorities for the ranking.


Also the list is already very outdated since it was released in early 2015.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
LegalLord
Profile Blog Joined April 2013
United States13779 Posts
April 02 2017 17:11 GMT
#7
I'm going to take a less conventional view on this: the TBLS four, who dominated Brood War in their own time, were already "over the hill" so to speak. Whether it was Brood War or SC2, it was clear that their greatest years were behind them, that they would still win for quite a while longer but that their monster streaks of the past would no longer be the future. The article that said "but these guys are EXCEPTIONS" was not really true, but look at it this way. I'm not much of an SC2 fan so I'll take the list above - Zest, Inno, Rain, soO, sOs - and I want to note that basically all of them (except maybe sOs because I have no idea who that is) were "the next generation" of superstars that were poised to become BW champions. And they became superstars in a new game instead, wow.

MVP too. When MVP switched, my thoughts were that "well, here is the first player from BW who is switching who is actually good." And he's, as far as I can tell, the only one who might deserve the title of "bonjwa" in SC2 history. So that also corroborates the "best BW players are going to rise to the top" story, albeit perhaps in a much more nuanced and roundabout way than intrigue predicted.
History will sooner or later sweep the European Union away without mercy.
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16010 Posts
April 02 2017 17:31 GMT
#8
On April 03 2017 02:11 LegalLord wrote:
I'm going to take a less conventional view on this: the TBLS four, who dominated Brood War in their own time, were already "over the hill" so to speak. Whether it was Brood War or SC2, it was clear that their greatest years were behind them, that they would still win for quite a while longer but that their monster streaks of the past would no longer be the future. The article that said "but these guys are EXCEPTIONS" was not really true, but look at it this way. I'm not much of an SC2 fan so I'll take the list above - Zest, Inno, Rain, soO, sOs - and I want to note that basically all of them (except maybe sOs because I have no idea who that is) were "the next generation" of superstars that were poised to become BW champions. And they became superstars in a new game instead, wow.

MVP too. When MVP switched, my thoughts were that "well, here is the first player from BW who is switching who is actually good." And he's, as far as I can tell, the only one who might deserve the title of "bonjwa" in SC2 history. So that also corroborates the "best BW players are going to rise to the top" story, albeit perhaps in a much more nuanced and roundabout way than intrigue predicted.

it's not really that much of an unconventional view, I've heard this many times before (and agree with it).
sOs was sHy in bw.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
beg
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
991 Posts
April 02 2017 19:37 GMT
#9
Flash and Jaedong have by no doubt been elephants too ^^
Just think about how many 2nd finishes Jaedong had in western tournaments. Flash and Jaedong were among the best SC2 players, in my opinion.
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-03 07:28:37
April 02 2017 19:41 GMT
#10
fun fact: Jaedong, FlaSh and ForGG and Hydra are the only 3 4 players to win a premier tournament in BW and SC2

but none of the 3 4 was ever close to a contender for a starleague win in SC2

e:
On April 03 2017 05:00 N.geNuity wrote:fantasy

FanTaSy turned out really great after he left SKT
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
N.geNuity
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States5112 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-02 20:04:41
April 02 2017 20:00 GMT
#11
mvp had much less brood war accomplishments than like soo or zero

biggest disappointments among people that seriously competed were probably bisu zero fantasy mind best in sc2, probably. Mind was really short though, he retired sc2 2013 which was right in the transition.

zerg: soo had very quite like OSL semifinals and round of 8s, hydra had a msl and another ro4 msl finish, soulkey and zero were recognized as incredibly strong zergs, jaedong did have success in the west and did make wcs global finals so that's pretty good success. Effort never really came fully back from retirement and did mediocre in sc2, some code S appearances.

protoss: dear/zest (aka wooki) and sOs (shy) were starting to be very strong for protoss, people should have really payed closed attention to shy as he was incredible innovative in broodwar too with some great fun games. Mini I think retired after stx disbanded right but he didn't break out, was a new protoss. Bisu just flat out disappointed. Jangbi kind of retired mid code S but he really was kinda freakish in the last 2 OSL's, bisu was recognized as way better. BeSt didn't play much sc2 but he didn't break out so he could be considered as disappointing

terran "elephants" probably disappointed the most as innovation/TY just took over instead of fantasy/flash/mind/sea or the equivalent newcomers with Last. So pretty young terrans that were in brood war for forever but other than floating around in code S for a bit flash/fantasy didn't break out, and fantasy was the best brood war player in the world at the end of brood war (incredible post season performances, beat flash in last grand finals, and 3 OSL finals in a row, and like 14-1 proleague record or something)

Because those that watched brood war knew that the rise of zerg was probably soulkey/zero and protoss was going to go down that dear/zest/sOs line, with bisu and best and jangbi. I.e. mostly zerg and protoss were getting away from being reliant upon bisu/jaedong and a bunch of new players were in the pipeline and would have lead brood war. Maybe you can just say Maru would have been a great brood war pro for terrans but just went to sc2 directly instead.
iu, seungah, yura, taeyeon, hyosung, lizzy, suji, sojin, jia, ji eun, eunji, soya, younha, jiyeon, fiestar, sinb, jung myung hoon godtier. BW FOREVERR
Starlightsun
Profile Blog Joined June 2016
United States1405 Posts
April 02 2017 20:41 GMT
#12
On April 03 2017 01:17 Charoisaur wrote:
Zest, Inno, Rain, soO, sOs are also "elephants".

If sc2 players would go back to BW they would obviously instantly dominate.
Just look at Flash, he couldn't make it past the ro16 in the GSL but in BW he's still the best player.
That clearly indicates that in the current sc2 scene there are at least 15-20 players who could switch to BW and instantly dominate the scene.


Or, SC2 and BW are very different games requiring different skills? I don't buy that SC2 players would dominate BW if they were to switch. The fact that the top BW players failed to perform in SC2 makes me think that the same thing would happen in reverse. However, both games favor young athletes, so I don't doubt that the pros who were playing when there was no SC2 will be eclipsed in the future, perhaps by players who have cut their teeth on SC2.
lestye
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States4186 Posts
April 02 2017 23:37 GMT
#13
I don't think the point was that a champion of BW would be a super champion of SC2.

If I recall, in 2013-2015 there was a significant divide in ESF and Kespa players after the Kespa teams made the switch.
"You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood
rauk
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States2228 Posts
April 03 2017 03:14 GMT
#14
the point was that the 2010-2012 competition was a farce because literally all the players who switched from kespa at that point were either terrible or washed up (most players had <40% professional winrate if they even got to have a tv game, other than the washed up oldtimers like boxer/july). and considering how pretty much all relevant players were kespa A-teamers after 2012 i think the elephant theory was pretty true
rotta
Profile Joined December 2011
5596 Posts
April 03 2017 07:13 GMT
#15
On April 03 2017 04:41 Ej_ wrote:
fun fact: Jaedong, FlaSh and ForGG are the only 3 players to win a premier tournament in BW and SC2

Don't forget about Hydra.
don't wall off against random
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16010 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-03 09:30:56
April 03 2017 09:29 GMT
#16
On April 03 2017 12:14 rauk wrote:
the point was that the 2010-2012 competition was a farce because literally all the players who switched from kespa at that point were either terrible or washed up (most players had <40% professional winrate if they even got to have a tv game, other than the washed up oldtimers like boxer/july). and considering how pretty much all relevant players were kespa A-teamers after 2012 i think the elephant theory was pretty true

The premise of the Elephant in the room article was that there are about 300 players who could switch to sc2 and dominate it within a few months of practicing.
Yes the Kespa players performed as a whole better than the esf players after the switch but a lot of esf players were still very competitive (Life, Maru, PartinG, TaeJa, Bomber, Polt, MMA, Byun).
According to the article those players wouldn't be competitive at all and completely disappear after the switch.
It was very far away from the truth.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Taf the Ghost
Profile Joined December 2010
United States11751 Posts
April 03 2017 10:35 GMT
#17
The article ended up being sort of wrong, in the end. It wasn't the top-tier players that were the worry. It was the young-guns that had natural talent but were still playing BW. At the very top-end, BW and SC2 diverge in the subtlety of skills needed. The truly top-tier BW players had invested so much in refining those skills in BW that the non-perfect translation into SC2 meant the younger players more hungry for championships would be able to develop those differentiated skills faster. (It's easier to learn something new than to re-learn something.)

The real difference when KeSPA came over was the massive improvement in coaching. That was the real only difference after the migration.
hypercube
Profile Joined April 2010
Hungary2735 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-03 13:01:25
April 03 2017 12:19 GMT
#18
It wasn't the top-tier players that were the worry. It was the young-guns that had natural talent but were still playing BW. At the very top-end, BW and SC2 diverge in the subtlety of skills needed.


It's a classic example of regression to the mean. The strongest BW players did do better than average, just not as well as in BW. This is exactly what you expect if both games require roughly, but not exactly the same skillset.
"Sending people in rockets to other planets is a waste of money better spent on sending rockets into people on this planet."
rauk
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States2228 Posts
April 03 2017 19:35 GMT
#19
On April 03 2017 18:29 Charoisaur wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 03 2017 12:14 rauk wrote:
the point was that the 2010-2012 competition was a farce because literally all the players who switched from kespa at that point were either terrible or washed up (most players had <40% professional winrate if they even got to have a tv game, other than the washed up oldtimers like boxer/july). and considering how pretty much all relevant players were kespa A-teamers after 2012 i think the elephant theory was pretty true

The premise of the Elephant in the room article was that there are about 300 players who could switch to sc2 and dominate it within a few months of practicing.
Yes the Kespa players performed as a whole better than the esf players after the switch but a lot of esf players were still very competitive (Life, Maru, PartinG, TaeJa, Bomber, Polt, MMA, Byun).
According to the article those players wouldn't be competitive at all and completely disappear after the switch.
It was very far away from the truth.


bomber and mma were ex-kespa tho, and they did have what, 3 years headstart on kespa?
jalstar
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States8198 Posts
April 04 2017 01:23 GMT
#20
On April 03 2017 01:29 The_Red_Viper wrote:
While it was wrong about the big BW stars like Jaedong, Flash, Bisu, etc dominating in the end the kespa players clearly were the superior players as a whole. Just look at the GSL results after the kespa switch.

The list you used as reference is done by a single guy and even though i like stuchiu's content in general it's still only the view of one writer which obviously makes it biased to some extent. Personally i disagree quite heavily with his priorities for the ranking.



Kespa had better protoss but equal or worse terrans and zergs
The_Red_Viper
Profile Blog Joined August 2013
19533 Posts
April 04 2017 01:53 GMT
#21
On April 04 2017 10:23 jalstar wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 03 2017 01:29 The_Red_Viper wrote:
While it was wrong about the big BW stars like Jaedong, Flash, Bisu, etc dominating in the end the kespa players clearly were the superior players as a whole. Just look at the GSL results after the kespa switch.

The list you used as reference is done by a single guy and even though i like stuchiu's content in general it's still only the view of one writer which obviously makes it biased to some extent. Personally i disagree quite heavily with his priorities for the ranking.



Kespa had better protoss but equal or worse terrans and zergs

Well not entirely sure about that statement tbh
IU | Sohyang || There is no God and we are his prophets | For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.” | Ignorance is the parent of fear |
Voltz_sc21
Profile Joined August 2015
66 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-04 23:30:23
April 04 2017 23:25 GMT
#22
I strongly disagree with this list. For instance, how can you call Taeja the third best player of all time when he has never won a tournament in Korea? Not a GSL, SSL, or Kespa cup... Sure he dominated overseas tournament but those aren't as competitive as the Korean ones. Marineking also... he has only ever won 2 MLGs and he is ahead of sOs who won 2 BlizzCons and an IEM World Championship? Is MarineKing on there because he popularized marine splitting? I could go on and on, but this list just seems... wrong.
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