Reach will start streaming BW

So what is the single biggest shift in the meta-game? I personally believe that it is the discovery of making the acquisition of extra bases viable, whether it is through the use of new units, building placements, or build optimizations, that is the single most important step in the evolution of how the game is played today. Terran players have iloveoov to thank for introducing the monumental strength of early expansion before building academy.

Zerg players were used to playing with two hatcheries in order to counter the fast tech from the one base focused terran play, but didn't think to adjust to the more economy focused game plan from iloveoov, but thankfully sAviOr came round. Zerg players have sAviOr to thank for moving away from two hatchery builds that simply didn't have enough larva count to support both the drone count and the army count necessary for the acquisition of three bases.

For the protoss race, Nal_rA was probably the most influential in terms of moving away from one base play. Of course, double nexus builds were used since the dawn of time, but were discarded due to it's inability to prevent the zerg from taking over the entire map. Nal_rA started to move away from the one-gateway play he was famed for, and optimized cannon placements to make the pay-off of an early expansion more viable, and utilized the high-tech units he enjoyed using with his one-gateway builds to harass the zerg economy. Double nexus builds became all the rage, and replaced the traditional one base play that was used against the zerg race beforehand. Of course, the protoss players were also helped by the map makers who saw the potential of this great equalizer of this dire match-up, and did their part to aid the spread of this new trend by making the the building placements easier to plan.

The double nexus builds went through many iterations, before being mastered at the hands of Bisu, who truly became one with the build. I think his largest contribution towards the match-up was the re-discovery of corsairs, which were previously merely used as aerial scouts, but I was reminded of how sAviOr used his mutalisks to buy time against the terran race. Bisu forced the zerg player to react to his corsairs, and dark templars, and made zerg players wish they had pylons or supply depots instead of overlords.

So the role sAviOr had in the meta-game advancement in ZvT in terms of build optimization (the shift from two hatchery builds into three hatchery builds), and tapping the full potential of certain units (although defilers were used by the zerg race, sAviOr was responsible for making the defiler a must have unit in the match up) was shared by Nal_rA and Bisu in the PvZ match-up. Nal_rA was responsible for the build optimization, and build placements, and tried in his own way to break the tradition with his extensive use of corsairs and reavers, but it was Bisu that truly showed how to bring the build to life through his immaculate corsair usage.

The PvT match-up was modernized by PuSan, who popularized the optimization of mass gateway builds, and most importantly was the one that showed the overpowered nature of the correct gateway optimization coupled with smart utilization of arbiters. Although mass gateways wasn't a new concept, PuSan played his part in optimizing the economy for it (which is why his protege Anytime was famous for macro, and used it for his So1 OGN StarLeague triumph), and most importantly used it in tandem with arbiter usage, a until that was employed mostly for cheese strategies beforehand. This basic set-up is how the match-up is played to this date, unchanged in it's fundamental philosophy since it's popularization by PuSan in 2005.

So these are the figures I think were the most influential in terms of meta-game advancements for the protoss race. Nal_rA, Bisu, and PuSan. It is not as obvious like it is for the other two races, who had massive game changers in iloveoov and sAviOr, who also happened to dominate the scene for years on end thanks to their new found weaponry. I personally believe PuSan was just as influential as the other two more famous names in protoss history, but his back-to-back semi-final appearances (the first being that miraculous turn-around by BoxeR in So1 OGN StarLeague, and then second being thwarted at the hands of July, who couldn't give two shits about what PuSan had done in the PvT match-up and stomped his teammates nuts) simply wasn't memorable enough for fans to truly praise PuSan for his contributions as he faded away into obscurity afterwards.

If I had to choose one player for sheer influence, I'd choose Nal_rA. Not because he changed a single match-up more so than any other in history, but because of he spent his entire career trying to come up with new build orders, and new unit compositions and utilizations. Whether it was trying out nexus first builds against Casy in 2006, doing hallucination recalls against GoodFriend in 2004, or trying out new building placements to minimize his photon cannon count, Nal_rA was the single biggest force in showing the power of thinking from another angle within the protoss race, and his perhaps unpolished attempts at raising the protoss race to the next level were probably incredibly influential to the final touches made by the next generation of protoss revolutionaries.

If I had to choose one player for single-handedly modernizing an entire match-up, I'd probably go with PuSan.

If I had to choose one player for taking the match-up to the next level, I'd go with Bisu. It's hard to distinguish exactly how much he changed the match-up because of his aptitude at the match-up, and how much he changed it due to his alterations from previous approaches to the match-up.

1) Lost Saga MSL (0 points)
Finals: After eliminating his teammate Stork in the semi-finals, he is the sole protoss player in the finals, and loses it to Luxury. Considering he was left alone after he was in the finals, and failed to gain the title (as in progressing past the finals bracket stage), he is rewarded with 0 points.

2) Jin Air OGN StarLeague (3 points)
Round of 8 ~ Championship: After Stork is eliminated in the round of 16, JangBi remains the sole representative of the race, and progresses through three brackets to become the champion.

3) Tving OGN StarLeague (2 points)
Round of 4 ~ Championship: After eliminating his only protoss comrade Mini in the round of 8, JangBi progresses through two brackets to become the champion.

1) 3rd KPGA Tournament (2 points)
Round of 8 ~ Finals: After being the only protoss to make it to the knock-out round stages, Reach progresses through two brackets, then loses the finals to NaDa.

2) SKY 2002 OGN StarLeague (3 points)
Round of 8 ~ Championship: The tournament that was the pinnacle of Reach's heroics. Foreshadowing the heroics of JangBi nearly ten years before, Reach remains the sole representative of the race after GARIMTO fails to make it past the round of 16, and progresses through three brackets to become the champion.

3) Gillette OGN StarLeague (1 point)
Round of 4 ~ Finals: Reach is left as the only protoss player in the round of four after ZeuS, and Kingdom are knocked out in the round of eight. He eventually loses against July in the finals.

4) EVER 2004 OGN StarLeague (1 points)
Round of 8 ~ Finals: After being the only protoss to make it to the knock-out round stages, Reach progresses through one round before losing to iloveoov in the semi-finals.

5) IOPS OGN StarLeague (0 points)
Round of 16: Reach is the only protoss player in this zerg, and terran infested StarLeague only by the virtue of his seeding due to his third place finish in the previous StarLeague, and fails to reach the round of eight.

6) EVER 2005 OGN StarLeague (0 points)
Round of 8: Reach is the only protoss player to make it to the round of eight as other protoss players such as Stork fails to join him. He however fails to make it past the round of eight versus GoRush as the sole protoss representative.

7) UZOO MSL (1 point)
Round of 4 ~ Finals: Reach is the only protoss player left in the round of four after the other two protoss players are knocked out in the round of eight. He makes it to the finals, but falls short to the player who'll eventually change his ID to sAviOr.

Flash: 14
Jaedong: 12
NaDa: 9

Extra finals appearances: 1
Extra semi-finals appearances: 3
Extra quarter-finals appearances: 6
Extra round of 16 appearances: 16