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Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
However, balance between the three races was never a fixed matter, and was greatly influenced by meta-game shifts, the map pool, format of competition, and the form of various stand-out players.
Further more, I was always of the opinion that balance is also affected by skill level. Balance at an amateur level, semi-professional level, low level professional level, and high level professional level were almost never entirely in sync with one another.
I want to look into the state of balance specifically for Flash's era, specifically for the highest level of professional players. The players who made a name for themselves in the individual leagues, and the ace players who carried their teams in the ProLeague.
I don't care if the terran race as a whole had a higher win rate compared to the other two races from 2007 to 2012. I'm not here to discuss the state of racial balance between random B teamers who tried their luck in the offline qualifiers.
This topic will be purely about the very top end of each of the three races, and how much the top performing players of each race managed to set themselves apart from the rest, in a time frame purely limited to Flash's active days as a professional to remove any historical context that isn't relevant to Flash specifically.
Flash made his professional debut in March 2007, and this is landscape of the professional scene as I remember it:
1) Professional Brood War was controlled almost entirely by KeSPA.
2) KeSPA recognized three tournaments, official tournaments broadcasted by Ongamenet (known as the Ongament StarLeague), official tournaments broadcasted by MBC Game (known as the MBC Game StarLeague), and the ProLeague that was broadcasted by both these television stations.
3) Ever since 2006 (since Shinhan OGN StarLeague S1 to be exact), Ongamenet StarLeague had a fixed prize pool for the round of sixteen and above. MBC Game StarLeague had a similar, but more top heavy distribution of prize pool ever since 2007 (since GomTV MSL S2 to be exact). So it can be argued that both these individual leagues reached a rough equilibrium ever since 2007, even if Ongamenet StarLeague had a better viewership and more overall prestige.
4) The ProLeague schedule was extended from three days a week to five days a week since 2007 (since Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R1 to be exact), and took a much larger role, both in terms of air-time, and in terms of priority taken by the professional gamers.
I'll attempt to judge how each of the three races performed on the highest level of the competitive stage after Flash made his professional debut in March 2007, by looking into the following metrics:
1) Individual league prowess in terms of prize money earned from individual leagues.
2) ProLegue prowess in terms of overall number of ProLeague victories.
This is not measuring the net worth of various players throughout their entire careers. I am going to purely fixate on the performance of various players after Flash made his debut.
In other words, what happened before Flash was active as a professional gamer is irrelevant to this particular discussion.
Prize money earned from major individual leagues since 15th March 2007 by terran players:
1. Flash: ₩356,500,000
2. FanTaSy: ₩137,500,000 (38.57% of the prize money earned by Flash)
3. Mind: ₩69,800,000 (19.58% of the prize money earned by Flash)
4. fOrGG: ₩67,600,000 (18.96% of the prize money earned by Flash)
5. Light: ₩27,650,000 (7.76% of the prize money earned by Flash)
Prize money earned from major individual leagues since 15th March 2007 by zerg players:
1. Jaedong: ₩329,400,000
2. Calm: ₩83,900,000 (25.47% of the prize money earned by Jaedong)
3. Luxury: ₩72,350,000 (21.96% of the prize money earned by Jaedong)
4. hydra: ₩68,600,000 (20.83% of the prize money earned by Jaedong)
5. July: ₩55,150,000 (16.74% of the prize money earned by Jaedong)
Prize money earned from major individual leagues since 15th March 2007 by protoss players:
1. Bisu: ₩166,950,000
2. Stork: ₩166,000,000 (99.43% of the prize money earned by Bisu)
3. JangBi: ₩134,400,000 (80.26% of the prize money earned by Bisu)
4. Kal: ₩56,500,000 (33.84% of the prize money earned by Bisu)
5. BeSt: ₩36,950,000 (22.13% of the prize money earned by Bisu)
Flash was on average further ahead of his peers than either Jaedong or Bisu in the individual leagues since his debut. Although Jaedong is the furthest ahead out of anybody in relation to the second best performing player of his race, that can mainly be contributed to the fact that no zerg player has reached multiple finals after Flash made his debut, apart from Jaedong. There was no clear cut number two for the zerg race like FanTaSy was for the terran race, and Stork was for the protoss race.
Once we expand the pool of players to compare with, Flash was by far the most outstanding member of his race. This is backed up by the fact that Light is the fifth best performing terran player in the individual leagues in terms of prize money earned despite having never reached the finals of an individual league.
Flash has won multiple titles in an era where the terran race had a relatively hard time in the individual leagues compared to some of the other eras. His individual league excellence can be almost entirely be attributed to his own excellence, rather than being a product of the overall success of the race.
ProLeague records since 15th March 2007 by terran players:
1. Flash: 233-82
2. Sea: 152-100 (won 65.24% of the ProLeague matches won by Flash)
3. Leta: 150-95 (won 64.78% of the ProLeague matches won by Flash)
4. Light: 145-108 (won 62.23% of the ProLeague matches won by Flash)
5. FanTaSy: 144-89 (won 61.80% of the ProLeague matches won by Flash)
ProLeague records since 15th March 2007 by zerg players:
1. Jaedong: 223-101
2. ZerO: 132-120 (won 59.19% of the ProLeague matches won by Jaedong)
3. Calm: 127-98 (won 56.95% of the ProLeague matches won by Jaedong)
4. EffOrt: 95-61 (won 42.60% of the ProLeague matches won by Jaedong)
5. RorO: 95-87 (won 42.60% of the ProLeague matches won by Jaedong)
ProLeague records since 15th March 2007 by protoss players:
1. Bisu: 185-80
2. Stork: 169-99 (won 91.35% of the ProLeague matches won by Bisu)
3. Kal: 144-124 (won 77.84% of the ProLeague matches won by Bisu)
4. free: 138-111 (won 74.59% of the ProLeague matches won by Bisu)
5. BeSt: 120-87 (won 64.86% of the ProLeague matches won by Bisu)
Flash was indeed miles ahead of his peers in the ProLeague also, but his ProLeague excellence can be argued to be a product of both his own individual excellence, and the general domination the terran race had in the ProLeague when Flash was active as a professional gamer.
As you can see, even the fifth most successful ProLeague terran player has superior records compared to any zerg or protoss player who is not part of the Taek-Beng-LeeSsang quartet.
On average, Jaedong is much further ahead of his peers than Flash was in the ProLeague, with zerg players really struggling to hit three figures worth of ProLeague victories since the opening of Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R1.
In conclusion, the argument that the terran race had superior results compared to the other two races while Flash was active as a professional gamer can only be applied when discussing the performance of the following stages:
1) ProLeague results
2) Individual results restricted to the lower rounds such as the round of sixteen (terran players had an easier time of qualifying for the individual leagues in general, even if they didn't necessarily perform the best in them)
Everything apart from that, was the result of Flash going against the grain and setting himself apart from the mere mortals.
If we were to somehow adjust for the races, Flash should probably be praised even more for his individual league prowess during his professional years, since no terran player apart from FanTaSy (who is himself another all time great) saw much success at the highest level.
Flash should probably be held in lower regard to Jaedong in terms of his ProLeague results, due to the fact that the zerg race as a whole failed to produce much ProLeague superstars.
My personal answer to who achieved more as a professional gamer once you factor in the overall power level of their respective race while both Flash and Jaedong were active as professionals, would be somewhat vague:
1) If you limit the comparison to just the number two players of the respective races during Flash's active years as a professional, yes, FanTaSy was closer to Flash than Calm was to Jaedong.
2) If you extend the comparison to other notable players such as Sea, Light, Mind, fOrGG, Luxury, EffOrt, hydra, and ZerO, Flash was much further ahead of his peers than Jaedong was in the individual leagues, while Jaedong was much further ahead of his peers than Flash was in the ProLeague.
Both Flash and Jaedong were extreme outliers of their race while Flash was active as a professional. I do personally lean towards the latter partly due to the fact that historically speaking we had more of an abundance of superlative terran players such as BoxeR, NaDa, and iloveoov.
But once we narrow down the comparison to the contemporary players that made their mark after Flash made his debut, you could make the argument that Flash was even further ahead of his peers compared to even Jaedong, or Bisu, depending on how much emphasis you decide to put on the individual leagues compared to the ProLeague.
 
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Wow, surprising that Zerg won that much less in Proleague considering how much success the race has had in individual leagues during this stretch.
I still have to digest a lot of what you have written, but I started watching professional BW back when Flash had just entered the scene as a rookie. And before Flash won his first championship, and during his almost two year slump after that -- as a Terran player, I remember a distinct feeling of utter hopelessness. Terrans just looked completely outclassed no matter how you looked at it. Sure Terrans won their share of games in Proleague, but that was it. Only Flash was impressive, no one was close. And since Flash couldn't win nonPL matches to save his life during his slump, no Terran was a legit championship contender. From 2007 to 2009, out of a possible 16, Terrans won a grand total of two titles (Flash in early 2008 and Forgg right after). It probably looks even worse if you go earlier than 2007 before Flash debuted.
We can argue about whether Terran is imba, or how much Flash's achievements are due to him being Terran. But one thing is for certain: take Flash out and you take away the only player capable of winning a title as Terran. Yes, that includes Last, Mind, and whoever else you can think of. Sure, one might win once every three to four years, if that's good enough for ya. And prepare for a lot of ZvZs coz Protoss is toast without Flash around to eliminate Zergs.
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After reading it again, I think interpreting PL results can be misleading especially when you include winner's league. Flash and Jaedong, for example, would simply play and win more just because their teams sucked really hard at some point. If, say, Bisu was on KT/Oz and Flash/Jaedong was on SKT, then Flash/Jaedong would win less and Bisu would win more.
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If I were to make a tier list, I would make a tier list of top-end individual league performance as follows:
1) Multiple championship winning players.
2) Players who reached multiple finals, but failed to win multiple championships.
3) Players who won a championship once.
4) Players who reached the finals once, but failed to win.
5) Players who never reached the finals even once.
Starting from 15th March 2007, the tier list is occupied by the following players:
1) Flash (T), Jaedong (Z), Bisu (P), JangBi (P)
2) FanTaSy (T), Stork (P)
3) Mind (T), fOrGG (T), Calm (Z), Luxury (Z), hydra (Z), July (Z), GGPlay (Z), EffOrt (Z)
4) Iris (T), Kwanro (Z), YellOw[ArnC] (Z), Great (Z), BeSt (P), Kal (P)
5) The rest
There is an explosion of zerg players from tier three to four, which explains the massive disparity in number of championships between the zerg race and the other two races while Flash was active as a professional.
So like I said before, once you take into account tier three and below, Flash's performance in individual leagues becomes way more impressive. While there is no multiple finalists from the zerg race apart from Jaedong, which is why Jaedong differentiates himself further from the number two of his race than Flash differentiates himself from FanTaSy, it is undeniable that the zerg race as a whole enjoyed its greatest success in the individual leagues during Flash's active years as a professional, probably due to the newly discovered mutalisk stacking micro-management.
At the risk of repeating myself, I am of the opinion that Flash's individual league performance cannot be interpreted as a product of the general success of the terran race. The individual leagues were dominated by the zerg race while Flash was competing as a professional, although for some bizarre reason, the era saw zero tier one (multiple championships) or tier two (multiple finals) players from the zerg race apart from Jaedong.
As for the topic of Bisu, I believe that you are somewhat off the mark with that point. We already saw Bisu competing in the ProLeague for a somewhat mediocre team (MBC Game HERO) at the very peak of his powers in 2007.
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R1 performances:
Flash: 7-3 (12th out of terran players)
Jaedong: 16-7 (1st out of zerg players)
Bisu: 6-7 (11th out of protoss players)
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R2 performances:
Flash: 10-8 (4th out of terran players)
Jaedong: 14-6 (1st out of zerg players)
Bisu: 4-3 (13th out of protoss players)
This is Bisu at the height of his powers within the context of individual leagues, the only time he was reaching consecutive finals in the MSL, as well as reaching consecutive semi-finals in the OGN StarLeague. No Winners League, or SK Telecom T1 holding Bisu back.
The only reason why Bisu has a seemingly poor ProLeague record compared to the likes of Flash and Jaedong has more to do with his fluctuating form, than any team circumstances, as seen by the horrible ProLeague form in 2007, his slump in early 2008, and another minor slump in the 2009/2010 season. Bisu actually had amazing performances in Winners League 2009, and Winners League 2011, but faltered quite a lot while competing in Winners League 2010, when he was in a slump. Bisu was someone who was overly reliant on his skill and form, and had incredible dips in performance when he couldn't find his groove more so than almost any other modern day legends.
Taking away the Winners League results, this is the best performing players in the ProLeague after Flash made his debut:
1. Flash: 167-82
2. Jaedong: 164-79
3. Stork: 138-75
4. Bisu: 131-57
5. Leta: 121-71
By erasing the Winners League records, Stork overtakes Bisu as the player with the third most number of ProLeague victories. I'm actually doing Bisu a favour by including his Winners League performance, where he gets to all-kill a bunch of free teams like Air Force ACE to make up for lost time. Winners League format is pretty much ideal for a player like Bisu who can gather huge numbers of victories while on form.
All-tme Winners League record:
1. Flash: 66-15
2. Jaedong: 59-22
3. Bisu: 54-23
4. Light: 49-24
5. HiyA: 45-27
6. FanTaSy: 43-29
7. Sea: 35-28
8. Kal: 34-24
9. Stork: 31-24
10. free: 30-22
The thing that influences Bisu due being on SK Telecom T1 would be increased number of play-off round ProLeague games, and decreased ACE match responsibilities, rather than any huge influence on his Winners League games. SK Telecom T1 had the least predictable ACE match card out of any of the top teams, which is why SK Telecom T1 players had such great win rates in ACE matches, but had less number of victories overall for each of the ace cards. I'll just list the all-time record for ACE matches (for the regular seasons and the play-off seasons), to make things clearer:
1. Jaedong: 24-14
2. Leta: 23-7
3. Flash: 23-18
4. Stork: 20-23
5. Bisu: 17-9
6. Kal: 17-12
7. free: 17-17
8. PuSan: 14-5
9. FanTaSy: 14-6
10. Calm: 14-12
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On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this.
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Amazing stuff, as always!
Thank you for a really interesting read.
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On October 17 2017 00:08 Letmelose wrote:
As for the topic of Bisu, I believe that you are somewhat off the mark with that point. We already saw Bisu competing in the ProLeague for a somewhat mediocre team (MBC Game HERO) at the very peak of his powers in 2007.
I really didn't bring up the possible bias in PL stats to pull up Bisu 
I honestly was trying to think of a reason why the top zergs at the time (other than JD) were barely pulling out PL wins. And then I just thought maybe they were on good/better teams. It's no secret that JD and Flash were infamously overworked for a significant portion of their career (i.e. Flash being nicknamed the Child Labor Terran).
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On October 17 2017 02:23 ninazerg wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this.
You shouldn't. Because while Terran was extremely successful in the beginning, things turned around completely for modern BW.
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On October 17 2017 02:23 ninazerg wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this.
Why though? What race has most OSL wins, highest amount of MSL wins, most proleague wins? In the History of BW at the absolute top, terrans have dominated most of the time. The only periods I can cite were this wasn't the case was pre-Boxer and 2006-2009.
So basically between 2001-2005 and 2010-2012 have Terrans been dominating.
And besides, it's a really interesting piece of work, I got wiser reading it.
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I guess being human and sticking to the home team pays off :D
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On October 17 2017 06:15 Neobick wrote:
So basically between 2001-2005 and 2010-2012 have Terrans been dominating.
I guess the point of the post was, between 2001-2005 Terrans dominated. Then got crushed.
Then between 2010-2012, Flash dominated, with other Terrans almost completely a non-factor.
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On October 17 2017 07:00 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2017 06:15 Neobick wrote:
So basically between 2001-2005 and 2010-2012 have Terrans been dominating.
I guess the point of the post was, between 2001-2005 Terrans dominated. Then got crushed. Then between 2010-2012, Flash dominated, with other Terrans almost completely a non-factor.
Flash pulled off magic way above the expected level for a top terran player, but saying other terrans were a complete non-factor is being intellectually dishonest.
While Flash did indeed dominate all competition in 2010 (his domination that year was as perfect as it was possible to humanly achieve), from 2011 onwards it is a slight against FanTaSy to say that he was a mere passenger in the individual leagues.
Prize money earned from individual leagues from 2011 onwards:
FanTaSy: ₩81,000,000
Flash: ₩62,500,000
Contrast that to Flash's absurd heroics in individual leagues completed in 2010:
Flash: ₩220,000,000
FanTaSy: ₩11,500,000
Flash was so far ahead of his terran peers in 2010 that it wasn't even funny (the most massive difference set between himself and the second best member of his race in history), but to pretend that was the case for all his other years is simply unfair to those who performed on a similar level, or even outperformed Flash in the individual leagues for all the other years.
By saying that all terran players were complete non-factors in the individual leagues throughout Flash's career, you are saying Flash himself was a non-factor apart from his invincible year of 2010.
Top two players for each of the respective races in terms of prize money earned for each year after 15th March 2007, when Flash made his debut :
+ Show Spoiler +Prize money from individual leagues completed in 2007:
1. Mind: ₩50,000,000
2. Iris: ₩22,000,000
1. GGPlay: ₩42,000,000
2. Jaedong: ₩40,000,000
1. Bisu: ₩81,000,000
2. Stork: ₩50,000,000
Prize money from individual leagues completed in 2008:
1 Flash: ₩54,500,000
2. fOrGG: ₩52,650,000
1. Jaedong: ₩75,000,000
2. July: ₩46,000,000
1. Stork: ₩65,000,000
2. Bisu: ₩63,000,000
Prize money from individual leagues completed in 2009:
1. FanTaSy: ₩29,500,000
2. Leta: ₩8,500,000
1. Jaedong: ₩85,500,000
2. Luxury: ₩53,650,000
1. JangBi: ₩20,500,000
2. Bisu: ₩12,500,000
Prize money from individual leagues completed in 2010:
1. Flash: ₩220,000,000
2. FanTaSy: ₩11,500,000
1. Jaedong: ₩113,150,000
2. EffOrt: ₩47,500,000
1. Movie: ₩25,650,000
2. Kal: ₩16,500,000
Prize money from individual leagues completed in 2011:
1. FanTaSy: ₩61,000,000
2. Flash: ₩55,500,000
1. hydra: ₩64,000,000
2. ZerO: ₩25,500,000
1. JangBi: ₩40,000,000
2. Stork: ₩27,000,000
Prize money from the individual league completed in 2012:
1. FanTaSy: ₩20,000,000
2. Flash: ₩7,000,000
1. ZerO: ₩7,000,000
2. Shine/hyvaa/soO: ₩3,000,000
1. JangBi: ₩40,000,000
2. Mini: ₩3,000,000
There's a risk to completely ignoring the efforts made by Mind, fOrGG, and FanTaSy in the individual leagues by dismissing them as complete non-factors, because by doing so, you are saying that Flash outside of his glorious year of 2010 was basically a complete non-factor also.
A better example of a complete non-factor in the individual leagues would be someone like Sea, who was absolutely awesome at thrashing low tier players in the qualification stages for the individual leagues and versus mediocre competition in the ProLeague (but did not do well versus upper tier players as evidenced by his poor ACE match results and lack of individual league results).
It is an extreme slight against FanTaSy to pretend that his individual league results were insignificant, considering he earned more than any other terran player in 2009, 2011, and 2012. FanTaSy is the most successful individual league player in terms of prize money earned outside of the Taek-Beng-LeeSsang quartet. Even if he did not win multiple championships, he reached five finals, something that nobody except Jaedong (9), Flash (8), and Stork (5) managed to do.
What Flash achieved in the individual leagues cannot be attributed to his race, but one cannot totally ignore the greatest player (in my opinion) outside of the Taek-Beng-LeeSsang quartet, and relegate his status as a near non-factor. That is not only disrespectful of FanTaSy, but also disrespecting almost the entire individual league career of Flash outside of his 2010 efforts, as if he was a one year wonder.
You have to give respect where it is due. Zerg had way more tier three (one time champion) and four (one time finalist) than the other two races, while the terran and protoss race were more blessed with tier one to two (multiple finalists) players than the zerg race. It was a joint effort from Flash and FanTaSy, with some unexpected help from Mind and fOrGG that kept the terran race going throughout the final years of professional Brood War. It was never a one man effort, and if it was, you would be accusing Flash of being a one year wonder.
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On October 17 2017 04:19 SlayerS_BunkiE wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2017 00:08 Letmelose wrote:
As for the topic of Bisu, I believe that you are somewhat off the mark with that point. We already saw Bisu competing in the ProLeague for a somewhat mediocre team (MBC Game HERO) at the very peak of his powers in 2007. I really didn't bring up the possible bias in PL stats to pull up Bisu I honestly was trying to think of a reason why the top zergs at the time (other than JD) were barely pulling out PL wins. And then I just thought maybe they were on good/better teams. It's no secret that JD and Flash were infamously overworked for a significant portion of their career (i.e. Flash being nicknamed the Child Labor Terran).
I'm somewhat perplexed by this issue also, especially more so in the more recent years, since the zerg race was the most successful race in the individual leagues. I don't think I've ever come across an answer that was fully satisfactory to me.
Think of all the great modern ProLeague teams in history. Were they ever heavily reliant on zerg players? SK Telecom T1 is probably the most succesful team of all-time, yet, they were famous for having terrible zerg line-ups. Woongjin Stars historically had great zerg players throughout the years, such as ZerO and Soulkey in the more recent years, but their zerg aces were notoriously easy to snipe.
ProLeague champions of recent years, and the best performing ace of the team:
SK Planet ProLeague S1: SK Telecom T1 wins off the back of FanTaSy (T)
Shinhan 2010/2011 ProLeague: KT Rolster wins off the back of Flash (T)
Shinhan 2009/2010 ProLeague: KT Rolster wins off the back of Flash (T)
Shinhan 2008/2009 ProLeague: SK Telecom T1 wins off the back of Bisu (P)
Shinhan 2008 ProLeague: Samsung Khan wins off the back of JangBi (P)
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R2: Lecaf Oz wins off the back of Anytime (P)
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R1: Samsung Khan wins off the back of Stork (P)
Even the players who were second in command for these championship winning teams were mostly terran or protoss players. SK Telecom T1 alternated between having Bisu and FanTaSy as the main ace of the team, KT Rolster had Stats as Flash's most trustworthy side-kick, and Samsung Khan's main driving force was Stork, JangBi, and Firebathero. Lecaf Oz found their greatest success when both Anytime and Jaedong acted as a one-two punch.
The best performing teams in the ProLeague with a zerg player as its absolute best player:
SK Planet ProLeague S1: Soulkey leads CJ Entus to 5th place
Shinhan 2010/2011 ProLeague: hydra leads CJ Entus to 3rd place
Shinhan 2009/2010 ProLeague: RorO leads WeMade Fox to 4th place
Shinhan 2008/2009 ProLeague: Jaedong leads Hwaseung Oz to 2nd place
Shinhan 2008 ProLeague: Jaedong leads Lecaf Oz to 6th place
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R2: Luxury leads OGN Sparkyz to 4th place
Shinhan 2007 ProLeague R1: Jaedong leads Lecaf Oz to 2nd place
Within the context of the ProLeague while Flash was active as a professional, if the best player on a team was a zerg player, that team was basically done for.
It's the strangest thing. CJ Entus reached the finals not when championship winning players like EffOrt and hydra found their groove in the ProLeague, but when the terran duet of DArKeLf and Iris were leading the team. OGN Sparkyz reached the finals not when MSL and WCG 2008 winner Luxury found his greatest heights in the ProLeague, but when Leta took over the responsibility as the ace of the team. STX SouL went further than they ever did when Kal was their best player (when he was awarded protoss of the year by KeSPA), than they did when Calm was having the performance of his lifetime in 2009. Lecaf Oz found their greatest success after Anytime outperformed Jaedong in the ProLeague during the latter stages of 2007.
Something about the ProLeague seems to suggest that you can afford to have terrible, or mediocre zerg players, but having lackluster line-ups for the other two races often means doom for your team. I would love to know the exact reason why, but I don't think it can be fully explained by the strength of one or two teams, since the lack of impact zerg players had in the ProLeague seems to be pretty much universal. How come zero zerg players apart from Jaedong ever made it to the top four in terms of ProLeague performance for any of the ProLeague seasons since 2007? That's more than five years worth of ProLeague seasons. No zerg player in the top four ever apart from Jaedong.
Even Pure managed to hit top four (2008). Stats managed it multiple times (2010/2011). Leta did it multiple times (2008/2009/2010). Luxury, Calm, EffOrt, ZerO, and hydra were highly rated zergs who proved their worth in the individual leagues, all of them having periods of time where they were the most highly relied upon aces of their teams. Yet none managed to make any impact. A top five performance is as far as they got.
It's an interesting issue. Jaedong was never overtaken in terms of number of ProLeague victories for any of the ProLeague seasons from late 2006 to early 2012. That's where you can say the rest of his race were a non-factor in the grand scope of things, because literally nobody from the zerg camp outperformed Jaedong in the ProLeague for six consecutive years. Jaedong was a top four ProLeague player throughout 2007, the best player in 2008/2009, a top two player throughout 2009/2010, and was a top three player in 2010/2011. The best the rest of the zerg race could muster in that six year period was a top five ProLeague performance from Calm one time, and a top five ProLeague performance from ZerO for a single season.
Jaedong was not only overworked in the ProLeague, but managed to be the only significant zerg presence in the ProLeague in the grand scope of things. There's a reason why the all-time top ten ProLeague ranking, whether it is for the total number of victories, number of ACE match victories, or number of Winners League victories, happens to be entirely dominated by terran and protoss players, and Jaedong is the only zerg name on those top ten lists (often topping the charts despite that fact).
Like, the terran race did not do too well outside of Flash in the individual leagues, but even then, we have top three terran players (Flash, FanTaSy, and Mind) in the top ten lists of prize money earned from individual leagues. That wasn't not an entirely dire state of affairs for the terran race, unless you consider it the norm for the terran race to dominate all platforms of competition. In terms of qualifying for the lower rounds such as the round of sixteen and the round of eight, the terran race was still ahead of the other races. FanTaSy was still a very respectable player even if you take Flash out of the equation, and out performed any zerg player of the modern era not named Jaedong.
Flash deserves even more praise for his individual prowess, because it was accomplished in an era where the zerg race as a whole outperformed the terran race. However, it wasn't an impossible task, as evidenced by how FanTaSy flourished way more in the individual leagues than any of his zerg equivalent in Calm, or any modern day zerg player you consider to be second in command to Jaedong. If the second best terran player is the fifth most successful player in the individual leagues in terms of prize money won after Flash made his debut, it's not that bad, in my eyes.
Jaedong deserves more praise than Flash for his ProLeague prowess, because it was accomplished in an era where the zerg race shat the bed completely in the ProLeague. If the second best ProLeague zerg player (in a time frame when Flash was active as a professional) is ranked eleventh in terms overall number of ProLeague victories, despite having more ProLeague appearances than most of the players in the top ten (so it isn't due to Woongjin Stars using ZerO sparingly), it does shed some light into how difficult it was to stand out as a zerg ace in the ProLeague.
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On October 17 2017 02:23 ninazerg wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this.
Why? The conclusion is basically "no because Flash is a God."
The thing that left an impression on me regarding Flash and balance was how he played TvP on Katrina. I remember the map looking completely BS and unwinnable as a T vs carriers. We saw weird stuff like 4port wraith blind-counter die to carriers. Then we watched Flash play that map and daamn, the moment I watched him, the map seemed unwinnable from the Protoss side.
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On October 19 2017 05:57 Purind wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2017 02:23 ninazerg wrote:On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this. Why? The conclusion is basically "no because Flash is a God." The thing that left an impression on me regarding Flash and balance was how he played TvP on Katrina. I remember the map looking completely BS and unwinnable as a T vs carriers. We saw weird stuff like 4port wraith blind-counter die to carriers. Then we watched Flash play that map and daamn, the moment I watched him, the map seemed unwinnable from the Protoss side.
That has somewhat more to do with the poor preparation from his protoss opponents than Katrina not being a bullshit map. Flash himself said that he could never beat Violet during practice leading up to the OGN StarLeague finals. His coach, who was famous for mostly letting Flash do what he wants to do, personally approached Flash before the finals and warned him that he was going to lose versus Stork if he was going to play standard.
I think maps like Katrina are beyond solving. As in, if two impeccable players were to go off against one another without a significant build order disadvantage, you can pretty much guarantee a winner from one particular side over the course of many games.
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On October 19 2017 05:57 Purind wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2017 02:23 ninazerg wrote:On October 16 2017 14:44 Letmelose wrote:
Flash is widely considered to be the greatest Brood War player of all time, and also happens to be one of the most accomplished professional players to match his sky high reputation. However, there is one question looming over his head at all times.
How much of his success can be attributed to his choice of race?
There is almost zero arguments against the fact that the terran race has been the most successful race if you look at it from a holistic historical perspective.
I stopped reading after this. Why? The conclusion is basically "no because Flash is a God." The thing that left an impression on me regarding Flash and balance was how he played TvP on Katrina. I remember the map looking completely BS and unwinnable as a T vs carriers. We saw weird stuff like 4port wraith blind-counter die to carriers. Then we watched Flash play that map and daamn, the moment I watched him, the map seemed unwinnable from the Protoss side.
Yeah but it starts off saying almost the opposite, so it's understandable, I was put off at first as well but kept reading anyway.
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If the statement that the terran race has been seeing the most success from an overall historical perspective upsets people, either they are in denial, or don't like hearing the truth.
I am not suggesting an innate imbalance within the game, but stating the simple fact that the terran race has enjoyed more success within the professional realm from a holistic point of view, even if the other two races certainly had eras where they found more success.
You can take away all the individual leagues Flash has won in his entire professional career, and the terran race still has twenty major individual league triumphs, which is more than what the zerg race has managed in their entire history. This is just one facet that I've mentioned, because I don't feel like having a twenty page long discussion over this matter.
The notion that it was the high performance from Flash that birthed the whine about the racial imbalance is somewhat short sighted, since it was an ongoing discussion before Flash even got his professional licence. The argument that playing the terran race was an overwhelming privilege during Flash's active years as a professional player is somewhat flawed also, since the terran superiority was limited to the ProLeague, and Flash's excellent individual league performance was almost entirely his own doing.
Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion going on here.
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On October 24 2017 03:45 Letmelose wrote:
The notion that it was the high performance from Flash that birthed the whine about the racial imbalance is somewhat short sighted, since it was an ongoing discussion before Flash even got his professional licence.
If Flash did not exist, wouldn't Jaedong have won way more leagues? Considering their ranking and domination throughout has been very similar and happened almost at the same time. This would put the zerg race first.
If a single sample makes the statistics look completely different, doesn't that make the argument weak from a mathematical perspective?
PS. does the balance discussion surprise you? You keep bringing it up yourself.
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On October 25 2017 20:07 LG)Sabbath wrote:Show nested quote +On October 24 2017 03:45 Letmelose wrote:
The notion that it was the high performance from Flash that birthed the whine about the racial imbalance is somewhat short sighted, since it was an ongoing discussion before Flash even got his professional licence. If Flash did not exist, wouldn't Jaedong have won way more leagues? Considering their ranking and domination throughout has been very similar and happened almost at the same time. This would put the zerg race first. If a single sample makes the statistics look completely different, doesn't that make the argument weak from a mathematical perspective? PS. does the balance discussion surprise you? You keep bringing it up yourself.
Let's take that thought experiment, and give it a test run. I'll ignore the tournaments where Flash's presence was basically a non-factor in the grand scope of things.
Daum OGN StarLeague: Bisu doesn't get cheesed out by Flash in the quarter-finals, and probably wins versus GGPlay. Iris would have been a seasoned veteran who just swept the best protoss-versus-terran player at the time. Iris also goes onto eliminate Bisu in the quarter-finals of the GomTV Invitational a several of months later despite the more difficult map pool. Probably would have ended up in a terran triumph.
Bacchus 2008 OGN StarLeague: Jaedong doesn't get knocked out by Flash in the quarter-finals, but Bisu may have the slight upper hand given the protoss favoured nature of the map pool. Jaedong did have a nail biting best of one victory over Bisu in the opening game of GomTV MSL Season 4 in a similar time frame, but maps like Katrina and Troy would have shifted the balance in Bisu's favour. Stork is waiting for the victor in the finals, and is no push over either, especially given the map pool. Probably would have ended up in a protoss triumph.
EVER 2009 OGN StarLeague/Hana Daetoo MSL/Big File MSL/Korean Air OGN StarLeague Season 2: Jaedong doesn't get bested by Flash, and probably goes on to win the entire tournament.
ABCMart MSL: Bisu gets out of the groups in the place of Flash, and with his opponents being busy with zerg-versus-zerg practice due to the plethora of high level zerg players in the bracket stages, Bisu actually has a very good chance of making it all the way to the finals. ZerO is no push-over, but since Monte Cristo, a highly advantageous map for the protoss race in the protoss-versus-zerg match-up, was the map of choice for the first and fifth game in the finals, I'll give the nod to Bisu. Probably would have ended up in a protoss triumph.
That would make the all-time tally for individual league championships as follows:
Zerg: 21
Terran: 21
Protoss: 15
Even if Flash as a player was replaced by some random push-over terran who was good enough to qualify for all the individual leagues Flash qualified for, but was incapable doing anything outside of that, the all-time championship tally for the terran race probably still remains pretty respectable, even if Jaedong becomes a nine time champion, in all likelihood. Bisu and Stork both probably end up with one extra championship each, and would separate themselves from the rest of the one time champions even further.
So without Flash, all the individual leagues would entail a two part story. The first part dominated by terran players such as BoxeR, NaDa, and iloveoov, and the second part dominated by zerg players such as sAviOr, and Jaedong. Flash played a pivotal role for the terran race in the individual leagues, which is why I kept insisting that his individual league prowess was almost entirely his own doing. However, even after taking Flash entirely out of the equation, you can certainly make the case that zerg would not have ended up as visibly the most successful race. That's how successful the terran race was from an overall historical perspective.
It is a little harder to speculate how things would have transpired in the ProLeague, but needless to say, for most of the ProLeague seasons Flash participated in, there was another terran ProLeague ace topping the charts as one of the top four performers. There was Sea in the first half of 2007, Leta in the 2008, 2008/2009, and 2009/2010 seasons. Light in the 2009/2010 season. FanTaSy in the 2011/2012 season. There was an abundance of terran and protoss ProLeague aces throughout all these ProLeague seasons Flash participated in, and that certainly was not the case for the zerg race, where there was never a top four zerg ProLeague ace for any of the ProLeague seasons apart from Jaedong.
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Really nice read Letmelose. Cool to see the win rates and prize moneys of the top players for each race. Jaedong really was above his peers when it came to Zergs. Shame about his health and form slump now.
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EPT
