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Top players have days where they play 2-3 games against other top players and then they have days where they play 10-20 games like Flash vs Larva recently. I don't know what the average is, but it's certainly closer to 5 games than 2-3. And that's ignoring ladder games as well as off stream practice.
Also, whenever it's time to prepare for important games, top players play many games in a bulk. The average over the year may be around 5, but for tournaments or during rivalries the average shoots up into the 10+ region. It was similar during the Kespa days, they were all far more active during the weeks and days ahead of an important match. It doesn't make sense for someone to play around the clock when literally nothing's coming up for them for the next two months.
So the quality of a player can vary quite significantly throughout the year depending on how driven they are. Snow right now isn't practicing very hard, so he's been declining a bit. I bet he'll return to top form when something big comes up.
This also means that the quality of players that we see nowadays is much less filtered. During the Kespa days players were generally showing themselves in top form because those were all televised games. That was a huge skill filter. But through the year their skill level likely underwent variations very similar to what we see nowadays. Because now we also see much of the behind-the-scenes.
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Now as I think, Soulkey is currently what Serral was for SC2: clearly best player, who keeps dominating everyone even after multiple nerfs targeted at him (straight zerg nerfs in SC2, map nerfs in BW). If he is not a bonjwa, then who currently is?
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Netherlands5354 Posts
Bonjwa hasn't been a thing for well over decade anymore. Maybe read Waxangel's post on page 2?
Let's see how he does upcoming ASL and then see if Koreans decide he needs a new nickname that reflects him being the best or at least peak performing for a significant time period.
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Koreans tend to play down post-proleague achievements so it won't happen
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Vatican City State90 Posts
On January 28 2025 04:42 SiarX wrote:
Now as I think, Soulkey is currently what Serral was for SC2: clearly best player
This is the narrative that needs to die down. Soulkey is NOT clearly the best player. He Is NOT better than Light. He was better than him for maybe 2 or 3 months (May-July 2024). After that, Light has been slightly favored: Yes, regardless of what a single bo7 series in SSL could make anyone think, Soulkey has not demonstrated to be better than Light.
Not only that, Flash has been kicking Soulkey's ass since December.
Soulkey's been lucky he hasn't had two long series against top terrans back to back (Sharp's TvZ sucks, he had an even worse record than Barracks against Soulkey the two years prior to SSL1).
Soulkey has relied a lot on deceptiveness to win matches in ASL/SSL. Even he admitted he had no builds left for Sharp. If he faces, say Flash and Light back to back, he is f'kd.
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On January 29 2025 13:57 cheesehuehue wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2025 04:42 SiarX wrote:
Now as I think, Soulkey is currently what Serral was for SC2: clearly best player This is the narrative that needs to die down. Soulkey is NOT clearly the best player. He Is NOT better than Light. He was better than him for maybe 2 or 3 months (May-July 2024). After that, Light has been slightly favored: Yes, regardless of what a single bo7 series in SSL could make anyone think, Soulkey has not demonstrated to be better than Light. Not only that, Flash has been kicking Soulkey's ass since December. Soulkey's been lucky he hasn't had two long series against top terrans back to back (Sharp's TvZ sucks, he had an even worse record than Barracks against Soulkey the two years prior to SSL1). Soulkey has relied a lot on deceptiveness to win matches in ASL/SSL. Even he admitted he had no builds left for Sharp. If he faces, say Flash and Light back to back, he is f'kd.
I mean, it's not as if deception was his only advantage coming in against T. I remember his match against Sharp on Monty Hall - he was defending down the middle lane and his army movement was crispier than anything I'd ever seen on that map. It was enough to get Sharp shaking a bit - and that was the reason he didn't knock the hatch down.
Granted, Sharp would have won that game if he focused the hatch, and also granted you did mention specifically that Sharp is bad against Zerg.. but I feel like it wasn't just Soulkey tricking Terrans. There was some seriously impressive execution on display, too.
That said, I think it's unfair the way the tournament organizers haven't used 1-way glass in the booths. PvZ is actually just impossible if the Z can look at the crowd and deduce what is happening in the fog of war... and that's what Hero did to Bisu, and what Soulkey did to Snow. I was looking closely. It made me really mad. The last game of the series, Bisu literally let Hero get his lings into his main on purpose just to try and put a micro tax on his opponent because he felt so hopeless in that situation. I don't even blame him. It was a terrible idea, but it was the best idea he could have.
So... I don't think it's quite fair to give Bonjwa status to anyone until we have booths that prohibit that kind of unfair edge. just my 2 cents.
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On January 29 2025 13:57 cheesehuehue wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2025 04:42 SiarX wrote:
Now as I think, Soulkey is currently what Serral was for SC2: clearly best player This is the narrative that needs to die down. Soulkey is NOT clearly the best player. He Is NOT better than Light. He was better than him for maybe 2 or 3 months (May-July 2024). After that, Light has been slightly favored: Yes, regardless of what a single bo7 series in SSL could make anyone think, Soulkey has not demonstrated to be better than Light. Not only that, Flash has been kicking Soulkey's ass since December. Soulkey's been lucky he hasn't had two long series against top terrans back to back (Sharp's TvZ sucks, he had an even worse record than Barracks against Soulkey the two years prior to SSL1). Soulkey has relied a lot on deceptiveness to win matches in ASL/SSL. Even he admitted he had no builds left for Sharp. If he faces, say Flash and Light back to back, he is f'kd.
From what I can see Flash vs Soulkey is roughly 10-8. A recent bo5 went 3-2 for Soulkey.
Frequently SK is in the top three, sometimes occupying first place. His success certainly does not come from luck and he's not running out of ideas. He's an elite player on par with all the other elite players. He also performs well in ZvZ.
He has a positive long-term record against everyone except Light and Flash. Even Bisu is in the negative against SK, which should raise a number of eyebrows.
The one and only statement I can agree with is that SK is not a Bonjwa. That status requires a much greater level of dominance for a lot longer.
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Vatican City State90 Posts
[B]
From what I can see Flash vs Soulkey is roughly 10-8. A recent bo5 went 3-2 for Soulkey.
I haven't seen that recent bo5 match and it doesn't appear in eloboard either --I don't know if they didn't upload the results, which sometimes happens, or if you were thinking of other players.
In eloboard, the record since Dec 01 is 4-7 in favor of Flash (63.6%). And Flash hadn't fully adjusted at the beginning of Dec.
He's an elite player on par with all the other elite players.
I never denied that. In fact, I fully agree with you. He is on par with other elite* players, not "clearly dominating them". Elite being Light, Queen, Flash and Snow.
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On January 31 2025 02:10 cheesehuehue wrote:Show nested quote +[B]
From what I can see Flash vs Soulkey is roughly 10-8. A recent bo5 went 3-2 for Soulkey.
I haven't seen that recent bo5 match and it doesn't appear in eloboard either --I don't know if they didn't upload the results, which sometimes happens, or if you were thinking of other players. In eloboard, the record since Dec 01 is 4-7 in favor of Flash (63.6%). And Flash hadn't fully adjusted at the beginning of Dec. I never denied that. In fact, I fully agree with you. He is on par with other elite* players, not "clearly dominating them". Elite being Light, Queen, Flash and Snow.
Yeah I also wouldn't say SK is dominating everyone. More like he isn't being dominated by anyone. He shares the throne with several others such as the names you mentioned (I'd also add Bisu and Mini).
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EPT
