This was a tournament that had 3 Koreans and 5 foreigners and the foreigners were a very weak group. All the best European and NA players are at Dreamhack. Among the Koreans none are top 10 in WCS points and Leenock has become almost insignificant in Korean Starcraft.

PiliPili is 9th on NA ladder and not top 10 foreigner. That's the 4th best player in the tournament.

Beating Keen by winning 3 straight was impressive but Keen is no top tier Terran. I would rank Keen as the 8th best Terran behind Inno-TY-Maru-Alive-Gumiho-Ryung-Byun.

Still Keen is a guy Zest could not beat this year until yesterday and Terran is OP. A good win for Zest and a boost in confidence going forward.

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 19 2017 13:29 GMT

#3445

Well yh I mean if zest didn't win then his chances of doing well in anything else were 0-0

Rolltide

United States447 Posts

June 19 2017 14:37 GMT

#3446

One thing that bodes well for Zest in the next year or so is that there are no super talented young players moving up the ranks in Korean Starcraft. Not that I could find and I researched it. In other sports an older player(24 is older in SC2) will be supplanted by the younger players coming up. In team sports older players lose a roster spot to a younger promising player.

You know the 18 year old who is perhaps 100th in WCS points this year and moving up fast and in 24 months will be one of the elite players? I don't see that. All the top 25 Korean players are 21 or older and or have been playing for several years.

You have examples in America and Europe, Neeb, Kelazhur, Serral and Elazer. No young Koreans?

Lil_nooblet

United States459 Posts

June 25 2017 08:24 GMT

#3447

Maybe one day he will be good again

Sakat

Croatia1599 Posts

June 25 2017 08:37 GMT

#3448

Zest is back boyz!

zakadar

Germany409 Posts

June 25 2017 09:07 GMT

#3449

how is he back if he loses to 2 foreigners in gsl quali

Phredxor

New Zealand15076 Posts

June 25 2017 09:17 GMT

#3450

Is a joke. Looks like I was wrong too. Thought he was good enough for GSL RO32.

Sakat

Croatia1599 Posts

June 25 2017 09:22 GMT

#3451

tbh it's kinda depressing seeing that great of a player fall so low

Lil_nooblet

United States459 Posts

June 25 2017 09:27 GMT

#3452

On June 25 2017 18:22 Sakat wrote:
tbh it's kinda depressing seeing that great of a player fall so low

Yep. Overall just the state of the kr scene is pretty depressing atm.

AshC

United States328 Posts

June 25 2017 09:48 GMT

#3453

On June 25 2017 18:27 Lil_nooblet wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yep. Overall just the state of the kr scene is pretty depressing atm.

Yah I feel the same way. A bunch of foreigners (including NoRegret *eyes-rolling*) made it.

I'm actually confused about Zest. He practices like a mad man lately. Winning quite a bit actually. I thought he is getting his form back. Then, bang, fall flat to the face at GSL qualifier.

Lil_nooblet

United States459 Posts

June 25 2017 09:55 GMT

#3454

On June 25 2017 18:48 AshC wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yep same. I know ladder rank doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things but still he was doing much better on stream then he was a few months ago and it looked like he was playing quite a bit better.

Sakat

Croatia1599 Posts

June 25 2017 11:19 GMT

#3455

On June 25 2017 18:48 AshC wrote:

Show nested quote +

I think it's a case of a sort of "levelplaying field" now that Kespa has abandoned SC2... Now almost all players are the kinds of B-level Koreans that foreigners would be beating at Dreamhacks and such...

Except for maybe the very top 10

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 25 2017 16:58 GMT

#3456

On June 25 2017 20:19 Sakat wrote:

Show nested quote +

I wouldn't go that far. noregret ZvZrushing his way through qualifiers is annoying, other than that they all had calm groups. Scarlett and TIME had to beat Zest and myungsik, who are fucking terrible right now. Elazer and Major beat Prince and Seed, not the hardest job.

I'd be suprised if any of them make it to ro16. Except if Elazer has a weak ro32 group. Top 16 KR right now is still very strong

Ukranian

United Kingdom26 Posts

June 25 2017 17:44 GMT

#3457

Losing to a basically unknown 16 year old Chinese Terran(Time) has got to be the lowest of the low. I love Scarlet but he could not take a map off of her.

I agree the top 16 Koreans are still very strong but Zest obviously is not one of them. I wonder if he is going to hang it up after this year. Or switch to Broodwar or something.

Ukranian

United Kingdom26 Posts

June 25 2017 18:09 GMT

#3458

If the current WCS standings hold there will only be 3 Protoss among the 16 players for the world championship. In 2015 there were 7.

Stats-Neeb-Hero. None from Europe since Showtime is currently 10th in circuit standings and SOS 11th among Koreans.

There would be 7 Zerg and 6 Terran.

9 Koreans(True is 8th in circuit standings) and 7 foreigners.

I'll be cheering hard for SoS and Showtime from here on out.

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 25 2017 18:29 GMT

#3459

Hopefully sOs and classic get ro4 again next season. I'd rather have no toss than herO to get in tbh

Rolltide

United States447 Posts

June 26 2017 00:29 GMT

#3460

The 7 Protoss players who qualified for blizzcon in 2015 in order of WCS points.

Hero
Parting
Rain
Classic
Zest
Lilbow
SoS

3 of those players retired. Rain and Parting that year and Lilbow after a horrible 2016. Rain for health reasons when he donated 1/2 of his liver to his dad. Probably saved his father's life. Now as everybody knows he is playing Broodwar.

Parting I believe did his mandatory military service. Lilbow after being destroyed by Life could not seem to adjust to LOTV and went from the best Protoss in Europe to perhaps the 5th or 6th best. A huge decline and then he retired.

Now the foreign void has been filled. Neeb and Showtime are better than Lilbow ever was and PitDrogo is comparable. But what about in Korea? Hero, Classic and SoS have declined since then. Zest even more so. All those top Protoss players are at an advanced age for this sport. All at or around 24.

Protoss would be in a sorry state if it weren't for Stats.