Hey guys i thought this might be an interesting topic now that the first half of the year is already over (time flies!).
With recent discussions about "the best player ever" or "goat" i thought adding some stats for this specific year might be useful. (also check out Trying to make a goat list for sc2)
Note that i only look at offline stats simply because some players inflate their winrate a lot through playing in rather unimportant online cups, i think going for offline stats levels the playingfield in that regard.
I will only look at the top 15 players in the wcs korea standings, so this isn't 100% accurate for the lower ranks. (someone like Dear might be in it for example)

So here it goes:

15. (P)

sOs

45–42 (51.72%) in games and 16–17 (48.48%) in matches

+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

14.

Ryung

76–77 (49.67%) in games and 28–29 (49.12%) in matches

+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

13.

Solar

73–56 (56.59%) in games and 33–19 (63.46%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

12.

aLive

80–60 (57.14%) in games and 34–19 (64.15%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

11.

Dark

71–47 (60.17%) in games and 30–16 (65.22%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

10.

TY

94–62 (60.26%) in games and 35–18 (66.04%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

Stats

94–64 (59.49%) in games and 37–19 (66.07%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

Maru

81–47 (63.28%) in games and 32–16 (66.67%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

herO[jOin]

93–59 (61.18%) in games and 37–18 (67.27%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

GuMiho

85–52 (62.04%) in games and 29–14 (67.44%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

soO

59–44 (57.28%) in games and 23–11 (67.65%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

ByuN

91–55 (62.33%) in games and 42–20 (67.74%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

Classic

77–46 (62.60%) in games and 33–15 (68.75%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

ByuL

83–50 (62.41%) in games and 39–17 (69.64%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

INnoVation

102–36 (73.91%) in games and 46–13 (77.97%) in matches
+ Show Spoiler [detailed] +

This list is in no means implied to be a definitive ranking of these players for this year. But imo it is still has some value to look at the stats with all the other context in mind (titles, opponents, etc)
Personally i think the gap between Innovation and everyone else at least supports the idea that he indeed is the best player of 2017 so far and it's not even really close.
Will definitely be interesting to see how this develops further!

Charoisaur

Germany16095 Posts

July 12 2017 19:58 GMT

Stats don't mean everything, no way Inno is the best player this year.
He only has his SSL win and no other ro4 appearance in premier tournaments. Stats on the other hand won GSL, got 2nd at IEM Katowice and got to the SSL playoffs as well as the GSL season 2 playoffs.
TY got to both GSL playoffs as well and won WESG and Katowice.
They are ahead of Inno for sure.

And I say this as a huge Inno fan who has him at #1 in the GOAT ranking.

Byul at #2 and ByuN at #4 shows how flawed looking only at winrates is.

The_Red_Viper

19533 Posts

July 12 2017 20:12 GMT

Well i state that this isn't meant to be a ranking of the best players of the year.
But yeah i state that it supports the idea of Innovation being the best player this year. I guess i should have phrased it differently because you are totally right that at least Stats has better results (i would argue about TY tbh)

But the gap in winrates is just huge and it definitely means something. Winrates are one objective measurement besides tournament results itself, so i think it definitely adds to the overall claim.
Let's just say this, if he can somewhat stay on that win% it is very likely that he will get the tournament results as well.

Charoisaur

Germany16095 Posts

July 12 2017 20:40 GMT

On July 13 2017 05:12 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Well i state that this isn't meant to be a ranking of the best players of the year.
But yeah i state that it supports the idea of Innovation being the best player this year. I guess i should have phrased it differently because you are totally right that at least Stats has better results (i would argue about TY tbh)

But the gap in winrates is just huge and it definitely means something. Winrates are one objective measurement besides tournament results itself, so i think it definitely adds to the overall claim.
Let's just say this, if he can somewhat stay on that win% it is very likely that he will get the tournament results as well.

not necessarily; winrates definitely say something about the form of the players but if that doesn't translate to good tournament results it's ultimately worthless. TY's winrates at IEM Katowice weren't that impressive but he won when it counted and got the trophy. INnoVation dominated the first season of GSL until the playoffs only dropping 1 map to Classic but then got reverse-swept by Stats and had nothing to show for his impressive winrates.

The_Red_Viper

19533 Posts

July 12 2017 20:55 GMT

Well high winrates imply that you have results to show. You cannot win 80% of your games and do actually badly in tournaments. (well assuming all the players play in the same tournaments and the sample size is reasonable)

Also Innovation got a ro8 result, that isn't "nothing", it's just under value simply because even if you are the best in the world you can still lose to other really good players. That's simply how it works.
This list is also based on the match winrate, which is obviously a better measurement for tournament results.
Though a high win% for games definitely adds a form of "domination" to the context.

Again, i am not saying this is a list of the top 15 players this year, but winrates are still objective data and by comparing players of the same tournament scene it definitely means something.
It's no surprise that players like Flash and Jaedong are at the top of career win% and are also considered to be the best players ever (in bw obviously)
It's also no surprise that Innovation might have one of the highest career win% in sc2 (if not the highest) and tournament results show it as well. A high win% definitely matters

And this year Innovation has ridiculous stats so far, even though you are right that his tournament results are probably lacking considering that this huge gap between him and other players exists.

Poopi

France13021 Posts

July 12 2017 22:00 GMT

The scene has so few players for sub 50% players appearing in the top 15 :x

The_Red_Viper

19533 Posts

July 12 2017 22:09 GMT

On July 13 2017 07:00 Poopi wrote:
The scene has so few players for sub 50% players appearing in the top 15 :x

No i just used the korean wcs standings to decide which players i check, this isn't the absolute top 15 list.
I simply didn't feel like it to check every korean player

But the upper ranks should all be actually the best, i would guess the wcs rankins are that solid ^^

JimmyJRaynor

Canada17873 Posts

July 13 2017 03:44 GMT

thx for posting this and compiling this information.

On July 13 2017 04:58 Charoisaur wrote:
Stats don't mean everything, no way Inno is the best player this year.

true, however, win/loss statistics mean more than nothing.

Ej_

47656 Posts

July 13 2017 07:21 GMT

Pretty much in line with the state of the game: INnoVation is a bonjwa and a choker.

Penev

28536 Posts

July 13 2017 09:26 GMT

#10

Interesting list

Inno get that choke valve fixed

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

July 13 2017 10:30 GMT

#11

Nice stats viper! Interesting to see most terrans struggling in TvT as it's just Gumiho and Innovation with 60% win rates, rest all below that.

Elentos

55594 Posts

July 13 2017 10:41 GMT

#12

On July 13 2017 19:30 Pandemona wrote:
Nice stats viper! Interesting to see most terrans struggling in TvT as it's just Gumiho and Innovation with 60% win rates, rest all below that.

Shows you what the changes to the match-up late last year did. Back then those winrates would have been 70%+ for TY, Maru and ByuN.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

July 13 2017 10:44 GMT

#13

Yeah wasn't much TvT happening then though right or was there, i always thought Maru TvT was questionable shall we say. Last 2 GSL he has lost in TvT series' and looked more than fine in every other match up for example (in that specific tournament)