Who's the THIRD best Brood War player of all time?

For a deeper dive and big shoutout to letmelose, here are great articles to better shape your thoughts by looking at all data:

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https://tl.net/blogs/536313-professional-non-major-tournament-career-ranking

5. Bisu

Champion of GomTV Classic S2: 176 professionals participating
Champion of WCG 2009 Korea: 24 professionals participating

Sum total of participating professionals from all the triumphs: 200

Comments: Bisu was not only the most decorated protoss player in the major individual leagues, he also happened to have great success outside of it, his greatest non-major triumph being GomTV Classic S2, which was the largest in scale out of all the GomTV Classics (in terms of player participation, because teams like SK Telecom T1 didn't allow their players to compete in the other GomTV Classics).

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https://tl.net/blogs/535759-five-traits-of-competitive-brood-war
2. Gaming athleticism

Definition: Aptitude for playing Brood War at a physical level. The hardware prototype of the perfect Brood War gamer, just like how there is a desirable physical prototype for any competitive athletic fields. Some of the more hardware oriented attributes would include the ability to maximize inputs within a short span of time (a metric that can be somewhat measured by eAPM), having a shorter reaction time, having more accurate mouse clicking abilities, and being in possession of larger than average hand-span to make full usage of all control-groups.

How high levels of gaming athleticism tends to manifest within competitive Brood War: Players with innate levels of high dexterity involving the mouse and keyboard are able to hit great levels of micro-management and macro-management even without having the best build orders, or the most dedicated practice schedule towards mastering all the intricacies of the units being handled.

I would guess that players who are naturally built for accurate and rapid manipulation of the mouse and keyboard would excel in other genres of video-gaming, especially first-person shooter games. Which is perhaps why NaDa (one of the most gifted gamers from a physical perspective) had such keen interest in playing Sudden Attack (a first-person shooter game) during his time as a professional. Terror[fOu] was prodigious talent known for his somewhat rigid, but mechanically solid mutalisk micro-managament based play during his amateur days, and now is known for his decent aiming abilities when he plays PUBG.

Downside of high levels of conscientiousness: Not much I can think of. Although there is a much lower return for being more physically suited for competitive Brood War than some of the other traits, having better physical attributes does not have any negative attributes that tend to tag alongside it, such as extremely high levels of creativity often being associated with low levels of conscientiousness.

Epitome of this trait: JangBi.

JangBi was a phenomenonally gifted protoss player who was blessed with a quick reaction times, accurate and rapid point and clicking ability indicative of an high end hand-eye coordination, and ability to sustain high eAPM levels even without much dedication or practice. When people discussed professional players with the fastest reaction times, JangBi was always the one of the first names to spring up in the conversation. Stork always said that he never saw a player who clicked units from his gateways faster than JangBi.

His natural talents allowed JangBi to quickly possess a delicate handling of all of the available protoss arsenal, ability to pump units from his numerous gateways with only a fraction of the time required for the average protoss user, which in turn allowed JangBi to focus more heavily on his playmaking with his units.

While I personally felt like JangBi never allocated his concentration to multiple screens effectively, or had necessary speed of thought combined with his fantastic gaming athleticism, JangBi in my eyes had the perfect hardware prototype for a great Brood War player.

Jaedong, another mechanical monster, had hands that were way too small (his hand-span was merely 18cm, which is why his mechanical prowess spiked earlier than most players, whereas JangBi's mechanical prowess remained top notch whether it involved handling a handful of units, or orchestrating a fully maxed out army), while Bisu, another player who stood out in terms of his hardware, had trouble differentiating himself when he focused his play within a single screen. Bisu's unmatched multi-tasking prowess had an element of great screen management and knowing exactly where and when to look next (mostly within the protoss-versus-zerg match-up), which is slightly different from being the sheer physical act of being able to click fast and accurately while hammering away ceaselessly on the keyboard pumping out units.

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https://tl.net/blogs/534635-adjusting-for-proleague-schedule-inflation
2. Stork

1) SKY 2005 ProLeague Round 1: 6-5
10 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 13-11
2) SKY 2005 ProLeague Round 2: 7-6
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 9-7
3) SKY 2006 ProLeague Round 1: 3-5
10 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 7-11
4) SKY 2006 ProLeague Round 2: 3-4
10 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 7-9
5) Shinhan 2007 ProLeague Round 1: 15-4
6) Shinhan 2007 ProLeague Round 2: 15-6
7) Shinhan 2008 ProLeague Round 1: 11-8
8) Shinhan 2008 ProLeague Round 2: 13-8
9) Shinhan 2009 ProLeague Round 1: 12-6
10) Shinhan 2009 ProLeague Round 2: 5-3
11) Shinhan 2010 ProLeague Round 1: 10-6
12) Shinhan 2010 ProLeague Round 2: 12-7
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 15-9
13) Shinhan 2011 ProLeague Round 1: 9-12
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 11-15

Schedule adjusted regular season ProLeague record: 143-103 (58.13%)

Comments: Stork's best ProLeague years were from 2007, but his 2005 rookie performance is vastly underrated due to the lack of schedule there was back then. Once we re-adjust the numbers to equalize the scheduling constraints, Stork was already hitting double digits per season in his rookie season.


5. Bisu

1) SKY 2005 ProLeague Round 1: 0-0
2) SKY 2005 ProLeague Round 2: 2-1
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 2-1
3) SKY 2006 ProLeague Round 1: 0-0
4) SKY 2006 ProLeague Round 2: 4-2
10 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 9-4
5) Shinhan 2007 ProLeague Round 1: 6-5
6) Shinhan 2007 ProLeague Round 2: 3-3
7) Shinhan 2008 ProLeague Round 1: 6-7
8) Shinhan 2008 ProLeague Round 2: 15-3
9) Shinhan 2009 ProLeague Round 1: 18-5
10) Shinhan 2009 ProLeague Round 2: 7-2
11) Shinhan 2010 ProLeague Round 1: 5-9
12) Shinhan 2010 ProLeague Round 2: 17-2
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 21-2
13) Shinhan 2011 ProLeague Round 1: 18-3
18 available match days -> Record re-adjusted for 22 available match days: 22-4

Schedule adjusted regular season ProLeague record: 114-45 (71.70%)

Comments: Bisu doesn't have many double digit seasons, but what we lacks in number, he makes up with sheer quality in the seasons he was in form. In particular, his performance during Shinhan 2010/2011 ProLeague was astounding, with Bisu hitting great numbers despite the number of teams participating being reduced (leading to less number of regular ProLeague matches), and once we adjust for the scheduling restraints, we can see that he actually got over twenty ProLeague victories for two consecutive seasons.

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https://tl.net/blogs/533176-greatest-high-profile-best-of-series-players
3. Stork



Overall record: 91-71 (56.17%)
Record versus terran players: 41-21 (66.13%)
Record versus zerg players: 23-29 (44.23%)
Record versus protoss players: 29-25 (53.70%)

Stork has been the player who participated in more best-of-series, the most out of any protoss players in history unless I am mistaken. This is something that hold true regardless of whether the records are confined to the major individual leagues, or expanded to include major side tournaments such as GomTV Classics or WCG Korea.

However, Stork also is the player that lost more within a high profile best-of-series setting, than any other modern day player (71 defeats suffered within a high profile best-of-series setting), most famously for his tendencies to come second place at any large scale domestic tournaments. Due to his large collection of failures, as well as poor performance versus the top zerg players of his era, Stork is often remembered more as a successful loser, rather than a memorable winner.

4. Bisu



Overall record: 76-50 (60.32%)
Record versus terran players: 37-33 (52.86%)
Record versus zerg players: 15-2 (88.24%)
Record versus protoss players: 24-15 (61.54%)

The most famous protoss player, probably in all of history, managed less overall victories within a best-of-series setting than Stork (even if the parameters are changed to just include the two major individual leagues), mainly due to his erratic form, but also managed great success in a couple of key tournaments to make up for the kind of longetivity Stork boasted.

Since the MBC Game StarLeague was Bisu's homeground, and Ongamenet StarLeague was Stork's, it may be interesting to compare the performances of these two players in a more neutral tournament that lasted for many years, WCG Korea.

Bisu may have only represented Korea once, but he won WCG 2009. Stork on the other hand had longetivity on his side, and represented Korea a record three times (a record he shares with Jaedong), but never won a single WCG Korea title (he came second place three years in a row from 2007 to 2009).

5. JangBi



Overall record: 61-40 (60.40%)
Record versus terran players: 25-11 (69.44%)
Record versus zerg players: 15-12 (55.56%)
Record versus protoss players: 21-17 (55.26%)

I was personally expecting FanTaSy, widely regarded as the fifth greatest player of the modern generation of Brood War professionals, to place fifth on this list.

However, while FanTaSy was generall way more consistent in terms of qualifying for the lower bracket-stages, JangBi was the best best-of-series player outside of the Taek-Beng-LeeSsang quartet, as evidenced by his two OGN StarLeague championships, as well as numerous second place finishes in the MBC Game StarLeague, GomTV Classic, and 2007 Seoul e-Sports Festival.

While JangBi isn't even the top ten ProLeague players of his era (in fact, JangBi has the worst ProLeague records out of the Six Dragons), JangBi was able to mark his name in history with a few short bursts of magic, that mostly had him run circles round his terran foes, with a success rate that even oveshadowed Stork's, generally considered the greatest protoss-versus-terran player of all-time.

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https://tl.net/blogs/533041-players-with-the-widest-effective-map-pools
3. Stork



Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,100 ELO points: 10
Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,150 ELO points: 1
Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,200 ELO points: 0

Due to his extensive career, Stork has by far the most flexibility from a time-line perspective, having success on maps such as Neo Guillotine, as well as the more recent maps such as Aztec.

Stork seemed to have a preference for two player maps, which were used less frequently in the professional scene than four player maps, but consisted half of maps where Stork scored over 2,100 ELO points. One could theorize that two player maps lessened the burden on Stork's mediocre multi-tasking, and accentuated Stork's stellar micro-management abilities.

4. Bisu



Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,100 ELO points: 9
Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,150 ELO points: 2
Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,200 ELO points: 2

Bisu is the only player on this list to score over 2,200 ELO points on this list, an accomplishment something even Jaedong or Flash cannot boast. However, his effective map pool was not as large as one might expect for a player of such talents.

Bisu seemed to have a soft spot for three player maps, despite it being the rarest form out of the usual competitive maps, excelling on maps such as Medusa, Aztec, and Longinus II. Three player maps, due to its rotational nature and difficulty in splitting the map in half, often lended way to fast paced multi-tasking warfares, which was Bisu's strong point.

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https://tl.net/blogs/532756-great-players-with-lopsided-careers
5. Stork

First ever round of 16 appearance: 2005
Reached the finals in: 2007, 2008, 2011
Final round of 16 appearance: 2012
Overall career points: 78 points
Ongamenet StarLeague points: 59 points (75.64%)

Possible reasons for the lopsidedness: Stork holds the record for the most round of 16 appearances within the Ongamenet StarLeague, and has appeared in four finals spanning across nearly four years. Even though he has only won a single championship, few would question his claim as the greatest protoss performer within the Ongamenet StarLeague.

While he was insanely close to winning the MBC Game StarLeague in 2007, he never quite found his mojo when playing from the MBC Game studios. While he was the epitome of consistency within the Ongamenet StarLeague, his MBC Game StarLeague legacy had much to be desired.

While his protoss-versus-terran win rate within the MBC Game StarLeague games is a very respectable 72.4%, his protoss-verus-zerg win rate pales in comparison with a completely lackluster 27.8% win rate, and may have been the root cause of his relatively mediocre showings in the MBC Game StarLeague.

Just as a side note, Bisu's career is basically Stork's career turned in the other direction (60 points earned within the MBC Game StarLeague out of a career total of 80 points, which makes him have a slightly more balanced career).

Stork

35 individual leagues attended
23 RO16s (65.71% success rate)
11 RO8s (31.42%)
8 RO4s (22.86%)
5 Finals (14.29%)
1 Championship (2.78%)

Bisu

29 individual leagues attended
14 RO16s (48.28% success rate)
9 RO8s (31.03%)
6 RO4s (20.69%)
4 Finals (13.79%)
3 Championships (10.34%)

PvT: 5 players with career win rates over 60%

1. Stork: 187-101 (64.93%)
2. Reach: 164-153 (51.74%)
3. Bisu: 159-90 (63.86%)
4. Nal_rA: 143-93 (60.59%)
5. ZeuS: 128-109 (54.01%)
6. PuSan: 124-91 (57.67%)
7. fOru: 124-107 (52.68%)
8. free: 122-97 (55.71%)
9. JangBi: 119-72 (62.30%)
10. Anytime: 114-89 (56.16%)
11. BeSt: 110-57 (65.87%)
12. Kal: 110-82 (57.29%)

PvZ: 1 player with a career win rate over 60%

1. Reach: 190-180 (51.35%)
2. Stork: 156-121 (56.32%)
3. Bisu: 155-69 (69.20%)
4. Nal_rA: 123-107 (53.48%)
5. free: 118-90 (56.73%)
6. Kal: 118-95 (55.40%)
7. ZeuS: 111-120 (48.05%)
8. JangBi: 109-94 (53.69%)
9. fOru: 105-111 (48.61%)
10. Anytime: 102-109 (48.34%)

PvP: 2 players with career win rates over 60%

1. Stork: 135-84 (61.64%)
2. Bisu: 122-71 (63.21%)

1. Jaedong

Total number of all-kill attempts: 13
Total number of successful all-kills: 5 (38.46%)
Number of failed attempts after 3 kills: 4
Number of failed attempts after 2 kills: 0
Number of failed attempts after 1 kill: 3
Number of failed attempts after 0 kills: 1

In 69% of the cases where Jaedong appeared in a Winner's League match with the intentions of all-killing the enemy team, Jaedong managed a minimum of three kills. This is why Jaedong was known as the all-kill king of Winner's League.

2. Bisu

Total number of all-kill attempts: 17
Total number of successful all-kills: 5 (29.41%)
Number of failed attempts after 3 kills: 1
Number of failed attempts after 2 kills: 4
Number of failed attempts after 1 kill: 2
Number of failed attempts after 0 kills: 5

Bisu is tied with Jaedong for the most number of completed all-kills, but needed more attempts to do so. Bisu only managed to secure three kills or more, when he actively sought out an all-kill, only 35% of the time, and actually had multiple botched up attempts where he ended up with zero victories to his name.

3. Flash

Total number of all-kill attempts: 12
Total number of successful all-kills: 3 (25.00%)
Number of failed attempts after 3 kills: 2
Number of failed attempts after 2 kills: 2
Number of failed attempts after 1 kill: 3
Number of failed attempts after 0 kills: 2

In contrast to Jaedong, Flash tended to be more successful as a closer rather than an actual all-kill threat, and was not that successful when he actively attempted an all-kill, securing three or more victories only 42% of the time.

Top Five Modern Players With The Widest Effective Map Pools

This ranks all the players in history by the number of maps they had an ELO point of 2,100 or above.

1. Jaedong

Total number of maps where Jaedong scored over 2,100 ELO points: 18
Total number of maps where Jaedong scored over 2,150 ELO points: 7
Total number of maps where Jaedong scored over 2,200 ELO points: 1


2. Flash

Total number of maps where Flash scored over 2,100 ELO points: 18
Total number of maps where Flash scored over 2,150 ELO points: 4
Total number of maps where Flash scored over 2,200 ELO points: 1


3. Stork

Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,100 ELO points: 10
Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,150 ELO points: 1
Total number of maps where Stork scored over 2,200 ELO points: 0

4. Bisu

Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,100 ELO points: 9
Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,150 ELO points: 2
Total number of maps where Bisu scored over 2,200 ELO points: 2

5. Light

Total number of maps where Light scored over 2100 ELO points: 6
Total number of maps where Light scored over 2150 ELO points: 1
Total number of maps where Lightscored over 2200 ELO points: 0

This is the debut years of Brood War players who reached at least two or more individual league finals, with their year of birth in brackets:

1999: BoxeR (1980), H.O.T-Forever (1981)
2000: GARIMTO (1981), YellOw (1982), Kingdom (1983), ChoJJa (1984), NaDa (1984)
2001: Nal_rA (1982), Reach (1983)
2002: Anyime (1986), July (1986)
2003: iloveoov (1983), sAviOr (1987)
2004: Stork (1988)
2005: Bisu (1989)
2006: JangBi (1989), Jaedong (1990)
2007: FanTaSy (1991), Flash (1992)
2008:
2009:
2010:
2011:
2012:

One single player (Hydra) managed to make the individual league finals out of all the players who made their debut after 2008. Even if we take the several years it usually takes for debutants to truly become terrifying competitors, and the eventual demise of professional Brood War that took place in 2012, it doesn't quite explain the sudden disappearance of super-rookies to full satisfaction.


Total wins
Players who have made their professional debut after the implementation of the drafting system
Jaedong: 240 ProLeague one-versus-one victories
Flash: 233 ProLeague one-versus-one victories
Bisu: 192 ProLeague one-versus-one victories
Sea: 172 ProLeague one-versus-one victories
FanTaSy: 144 ProLeague one-versus-one victories

The 10-100 club is a very exclusive collection of players, only having eight players having the necessary credentials to join the club. The one consistent factor that co-exists amongst these eight players is these players' uncanny ability to thwart players below their level.

1. Players with the most victories within major individual leagues from the round of sixteen onwards

1. Flash: 124 victories
2. Jaedong: 117 victories
3. Stork: 92 victories
4. Bisu: 78 victories
5. FanTaSy: 68 victories
6. ZerO: 40 victories
7. Kal: 37 victories
8. Sea: 16 victories

2. Players with the highest win rate within individual leagues from the round of sixteen onwards

1. Flash: 65.26%
2. Jaedong: 65.00%
3. FanTaSy: 63.55%
4. Bisu: 59.54%
5. Stork: 54.76%
6. ZerO: 53.33%
7. Kal: 48.05%
8. Sea: 34.78%


3. Players with the most victories within qualifying stages leading up to the round of sixteen

1. Sea: 132 wins
2. Stork: 118 wins
3. Bisu: 111 wins
4. Jaedong: 104 wins
5. Kal: 87 wins
6. ZerO: 79 wins
7. Flash: 64 wins
8. FanTaSy: 63 wins

4. Players with the highest win rates within qualifying stages leading up to the round of sixteen

1. Flash: 76.19%
2. Stork: 69.01%
3. Bisu: 68.52%
4. Jaedong: 67.80%
5. Kal: 64.75%
6. ZerO: 64.75%
7. FanTaSy: 64.29%
8. Sea: 62.86%

5. Players with the highest portion of games played within the qualifying stages leading up to the round of 16, out of their overall number of games played within the major individual leagues

1. Sea: 82.03%
2. Kal: 64.68%
3. ZerO: 61.93%
4. Bisu: 55.29%
5. Stork: 50.44%
6. FanTaSy: 47.80%
7. Jaedong: 45.29%
8. Flash: 30.66%

6. Players with the highest discrepancy in win rate when comparing their win rates in the round of sixteen and above, and their win rate from the qualifying rounds leading up to that point

1. Sea: 28.08 percentage difference
2. Stork: 14.25 percentage difference
3. Kal: 13.65 percentage difference
4. ZerO: 11.42 percentage difference
5. Flash: 10.93 percentage difference
6. Bisu: 8.98 percentage difference
7. Jaedong: 2.80 percentage difference
8. FanTaSy: 0.74 percentage difference

The major tournament records of the above eight players for clarity's sake, ranked by their overall number of victories earned from the round of sixteen onwards:

1. Flash

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 124-66 (65.26%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 64-20 (76.19%)

2. Jaedong

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 117-63 (65.00%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 104-45 (67.80%)

3. Stork

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 92-76 (54.76%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 118-53 (69.01%)

4. Bisu

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 78-53 (59.54%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 111-51 (68.52%)

5. FanTaSy

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 68-39 (63.55%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 63-35 (64.29%)

6. ZerO

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 40-35 (53.33%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 79-43 (64.75%)

7. Kal

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 37-40 (48.05%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 87-54 (61.70%)

8. Sea

Tournament record from the round of sixteen onwards: 16-30 (34.78%)
Tournament record leading up to the round of sixteen: 132-78 (62.86%)