• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:01
CEST 08:01
KST 15:01
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon98Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?179Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9
StarCraft 2
General
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Has online-only competition during the pandemic changed your enjoyment of pro SC2? How do you feel about the StarCraft shooter announcement at BlizzCon 2026? Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament KSL Week #92
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 542 The Ascended Mutation # 541 Binary Choice
Brood War
General
New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Remastered crash fix suggestions Syncronization issues and can't find games a Announcement on the JEDI Ringing
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro16 Group D The Casual Games of the Week Thread Small VOD Thread 2.0 BWCL Season 65 Announcement
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation Diablo IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Post Your Watch!
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Virtual Romance, Real-Life C…
TrAiDoS
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 11178 users

Statistical Bonjwa Theory: the History of BW - Page 2

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Warpath
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1242 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-31 14:28:45
July 31 2012 14:28 GMT
#21
On July 31 2012 23:13 mathemagician1986 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 31 2012 21:48 rift wrote:
[image loading]
This uses Glicko-2, which Trueskill is based on, and is the best rating system. Source is every game in TLPD.

For those saying "but this is just based on win rates!", you are incorrect. Points fluctuate based on the score of the player beaten; i.e. OSL wins are typically of more value than beating up Proleague scrubs. Se how Bisu is the best player in the first half of 2007 despite having a worse record than Stork or Jaedong.

GLICKO-2 also improves on Elo with the introduction of a reliability rating, which assesses the accuracy of a player's score depending how recently they've played games.

that graph doesn't tell me anything to be honest. too many lines.



just only look at the color on the very top, the rest is pretty much redundant. Shows the gap between the bonjwas of their time and.. the rest.
zanzib
Profile Joined December 2009
China152 Posts
July 31 2012 14:39 GMT
#22
On a more human level and also as a competitor - I start to wonder whether people start declining in their sheer ability to process information and respond with dexterous movement after a particular time in an individuals lifetime. The answer seems obvious but a part of me doesn't want to believe it.

I used to stare at these kind of graphs for other things like Tennis and Chess too and usually its something like a hump, although in many other forms of competition, there's less of an impetus to respond instantly and experience can be the entire makeup of determining skill, where you see guys like Kasparov maintain a positive slope for a good duration of 20 years.

It's awesome to see particular players that have relative longevity like Storkbi, but on the 6 Dragon's graph it's depressing to see Kal's line just drop.
Sometimes backwards is forwards.
Xiphos
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada7507 Posts
July 31 2012 15:15 GMT
#23
On July 31 2012 23:39 zanzib wrote:
On a more human level and also as a competitor - I start to wonder whether people start declining in their sheer ability to process information and respond with dexterous movement after a particular time in an individuals lifetime. The answer seems obvious but a part of me doesn't want to believe it.

I used to stare at these kind of graphs for other things like Tennis and Chess too and usually its something like a hump, although in many other forms of competition, there's less of an impetus to respond instantly and experience can be the entire makeup of determining skill, where you see guys like Kasparov maintain a positive slope for a good duration of 20 years.

It's awesome to see particular players that have relative longevity like Storkbi, but on the 6 Dragon's graph it's depressing to see Kal's line just drop.


I believe that it is a mental wall that everyone faces and not actual age factor. Once you reach a certain peak, your mind may wonder all to other distractions and you won't be excatly 100% focused. I do believe that someone who started playing BW at age of 30, assuming that his fighting spirit is just as strong as his adolescent days, his passion will overcome this "lifetime peak".

Some players simply burns out after a while. Then they'll refocus on what matters the most.

On the note of Chess, you can't really compare that to Brood War because it doesn't require mechanics at all (well except moving the chess piece but that is really extraneous). Chess players will only get stronger as they accumulate knowledge and experience throughout the years. But however at a certain time in their life, they will too reach that "burn out" stage where slumps happen until their mind pull themselves together once again.
2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
hacklebeast
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5090 Posts
July 31 2012 15:23 GMT
#24
Statistical Bonjwa Theory is a sick band name
Protoss: Best, Paralyze, Jangbi, Nal_Ra || Terran: Oov, Boxer, Fantasy, Hiya|| Zerg: Yellow, Zero
Le French
Profile Joined December 2011
France782 Posts
July 31 2012 15:29 GMT
#25
Great work! Please spotlight!
Ca va?
sluggaslamoo
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
Australia4494 Posts
July 31 2012 15:31 GMT
#26
I remember the days when Flash just couldn't lose.

I almost stopped watching BW for a while during that time.
Come play Android Netrunner - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=409008
Telcontar
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom16710 Posts
July 31 2012 15:45 GMT
#27
Very nice.

And it doesn't bother me whether JD's considered a bonjwa or not. He's still one of the best players to have ever played the game, and he has the trophies & stats to show for it. The Tyrant is a good enough title for him.
Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta.
nadafanboy42
Profile Joined August 2009
Netherlands209 Posts
July 31 2012 15:53 GMT
#28
On July 31 2012 18:41 No0n wrote:
Just looking at the statistics, Flash SHOULD be the fifth bonjwa, but I think the problem is the term "bonjwa" started and ended with sAviOr. Before sAviOr the term bonjwa wasn't used to describe Boxer, NaDa, or Oov. After sAviOr, people looked back and decided that those three should be labelled Bonjwa as well. In all honesty, Flash should be, but I think it'd be better to leave the Era of the Bonjwas behind and follow the koreans with calling Flash something other than Bonjwa as Broodwar comes to an end.

I just want to double up on this point. The term Bonjwa was something born from the myth and hype surrounding sAviOr back in his prime. People at the time looked back and saw that you could draw a rough 'dynasty' of successive no.1 players, with each new no.1 defeating their predecessor in a high profile match. However a large part of that was just coincidence, and people retroactively interpreting history in a way that fit the 'Bonjwa Model'. With sAviOr's fall from grace the whole Bonjwa concept became tainted by association, and I agree that I think it's best to leave it behind.

That said, as a statistical analysis of the successive no.1 players in Broodwar history, this model is awesome. I really like the way this model shows things like Jaedong and Flash's close rivalry, or NaDa's huge consistency even after his prime.
If you have time, it would be awesome if you could work together with a 'broodwar historian' or someone with a lot of knowledge of the history itself and create an article about how your statistics reflect the events in the game and the careers of the players. The way this article: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=94254 takes the TvZ winrates statistics and sets it to the actual strategy, maps and metagame of the time.
NaDa/Jaedong/Liquid-Fanboy
Lorch
Profile Joined June 2011
Germany3710 Posts
July 31 2012 16:02 GMT
#29
Really sick writeup, about these rating system: Oddly enough a lot of games use ELO or something the developers made up, while microsoft forces all their developers to use trueskill (halo series would be a good example).

If we have to stick with bonjwa (which we kinda have to given how wildly known it is throughout the community), I'd say we decide on both jaedong and flash to become the last two bonjwas of bw, even though flash is/was arguably more successful than jaedong, someone who rapes people with one of the most micro intensive rts mechanics of all time deserves to be on that list.
cyanogeneoexes
Profile Joined July 2012
2 Posts
July 31 2012 16:33 GMT
#30
what a good job!
this must be the most awesome statistic i have ever seen.
blueblimp
Profile Joined May 2009
Canada297 Posts
July 31 2012 16:46 GMT
#31
Nice post. The most interesting thing to me here is Midas's rating. Being #1 for a few months is nothing to sneeze at, even if he never reached the peaks the others did. Shouldn't his line be in the final graph, too?
Sc2ttyl
Profile Joined October 2010
United States245 Posts
July 31 2012 16:59 GMT
#32
It's funny knowing how savior would have been the ultimate ma bonjwa like he was destined to be. He would have been the greatest player to ever grace earth.
yo
7mk
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Germany10157 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-31 17:04:57
July 31 2012 17:03 GMT
#33
nice post! thanks



On July 31 2012 23:08 NicksonReyes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 31 2012 15:19 d_ijk_stra wrote:
Lim-Lee-Choi-Ma + Jaedong, Flash lifetime ratings

[image loading]


Damn, JD performed way better than any of the first 4 Bonjwas. Too bad the very definition of the word didn't allow him to be one because of Flash.


I'm pretty sure that comparison, saying JD performerd way better isnt entirely fair because Flash and Jaedong simply got to play way more games per month than the old bonjwas.
beep boop
Fionn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States23455 Posts
July 31 2012 17:03 GMT
#34
I thought Flash was proclaimed a bonjwa by the Korean press after he won the MSL/OSL in a span of a week? Pretty sure he's the 5th.
Writerhttps://twitter.com/FionnOnFire
Mortality
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
United States4790 Posts
July 31 2012 17:16 GMT
#35
On July 31 2012 18:39 Plexa wrote:
Keep in mind that Boxer's TLPD doesn't take into consideration a good number of smaller korean tournaments that he crushed (iirc they weren't on TV though).


Yes.

It is hard to compare results of today with results from back then because during that time the concept of "professional gaming" was very loosely defined. Back then players made their living from tournament prize money, so winning a $2000 tournament that was not on television was still very important even for top players like Boxer.

These days, almost all a player's money comes from the team and progamers are forbidden from even playing in smaller tournaments without permission.

On July 31 2012 18:41 No0n wrote:
Just looking at the statistics, Flash SHOULD be the fifth bonjwa, but I think the problem is the term "bonjwa" started and ended with sAviOr. Before sAviOr the term bonjwa wasn't used to describe Boxer, NaDa, or Oov. After sAviOr, people looked back and decided that those three should be labelled Bonjwa as well. In all honesty, Flash should be, but I think it'd be better to leave the Era of the Bonjwas behind and follow the koreans with calling Flash something other than Bonjwa as Broodwar comes to an end.


"Bonjwa" was first used as a nickname for July from his fans, but it didn't catch on because July was perceived as second to Oov, especially after getting 3-0'd in OSL.

On July 31 2012 23:08 NicksonReyes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 31 2012 15:19 d_ijk_stra wrote:
Lim-Lee-Choi-Ma + Jaedong, Flash lifetime ratings

[image loading]


Damn, JD performed way better than any of the first 4 Bonjwas. Too bad the very definition of the word didn't allow him to be one because of Flash.


Score depends on the number of games you play, same as with ELO. When Jaedong reached his prime, proleague was in the process of expanding to a much greater number of games and 2v2 was being reduced. If you pay careful attention to the numbers, you'll see that TBLS collectively is "ahead" of the bonjwas all at the same time.

Statistically speaking, the most important element for determining bonjwa is the gap between 1 and 2, 1 and 3, etc. That is to say, how far ahead of the rest of the field #1 is.

You might think of it this way: if the world record at some event is 100 but there are a dozen other players who have all scored better than 95, then that's not nearly as impressive as if the world record is a score of 80 but the second best player only has a score of 60.

The only thing startling to me about these graphs is how short the Boxer and Savior eras appear; however, in both cases there were small but significant events that are not featured in the data. For example with Savior playing at WEG or whatever it was called -- this tournament was unofficial and does not count towards stats, but Savior was defeating top players in dominating fashion.
Even though this Proleague bullshit has been completely bogus, I really, really, really do not see how Khan can lose this. I swear I will kill myself if they do. - nesix before KHAN lost to eNature
Aunvilgod
Profile Joined December 2011
2653 Posts
July 31 2012 17:26 GMT
#36
There you see what makes god god.
ilovegroov | Blizzards mapmaker(s?) suck ass | #1 Protoss hater
soulist
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States932 Posts
July 31 2012 17:32 GMT
#37
I think to not call Flash bonjwa is ludicrous. In late 2009, 2010, and 2011; flash was the undisputed best player, no doubts.
Evil Geniuses<3
iFU.pauline
Profile Joined September 2009
France1748 Posts
July 31 2012 17:34 GMT
#38
Interesting, that was a good study. We can define bonjwa the way we want, but i will talk more about the influence and psychological impact those players had. As it was stated in an other article regarding the term "bonjwa" it started and ended with sAviOr. After that, sure you got Jaedong and Flash, they won more trophy, but they still had a rivalry, while sAviOr was just over the top.
No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere, I see Heaven's glories shine, And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
Signet
Profile Joined March 2007
United States1718 Posts
July 31 2012 17:35 GMT
#39
On August 01 2012 00:15 Xiphos wrote:
On the note of Chess, you can't really compare that to Brood War because it doesn't require mechanics at all (well except moving the chess piece but that is really extraneous). Chess players will only get stronger as they accumulate knowledge and experience throughout the years. But however at a certain time in their life, they will too reach that "burn out" stage where slumps happen until their mind pull themselves together once again.

Cognitive decline begins in your late 20s. Experience/accumulation of more knowledge can hold off visible effects of that for quite a while, but at some point, that's going to play out for a chess grandmaster similarly to how loss of dexterity plays out for progamers.
chaosTheory_14cc
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada1270 Posts
July 31 2012 18:28 GMT
#40
Very nice write up. Looking at the statistics Flash is definitely the most deserving of the title.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
ISSL Monthly #1 - Day 1
CranKy Ducklings29
LiquipediaDiscussion
OSC
22:00
Masters Cup #151
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2353
GuemChi 1391
actioN 270
Snow 110
Hm[arnc] 86
sSak 69
yabsab 40
Noble 16
Icarus 9
Dota 2
febbydoto231
Other Games
summit1g11784
WinterStarcraft449
XaKoH 237
Livibee127
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1072
BasetradeTV38
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH10
• Letter147
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2192
League of Legends
• Rush1246
• Lourlo933
Upcoming Events
IntoTheTV X SOOP
4h 59m
herO vs SHIN
Percival vs ByuN
RotterdaM Event
10h 14m
Replay Cast
17h 59m
GSL
1d 4h
Replay Cast
1d 17h
GSL
2 days
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
2 days
Spirit vs Mixu
Replay Cast
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Shine vs Rush
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
[ Show More ]
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Light vs EffOrt
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
SC4ALL II: Brood War
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.