Banner photo by DreamHack


Power Rank
DH: Stockholm Edition


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by TeamLiquid Writers

Is it too early for a HotS Power Rank? Yes! Are we doing one anyway? Yes!

The TL Power Rank returns just in time for DreamHack: Stockholm, in its first Heart of the Swarm edition. In all honesty, there haven't been enough games played yet – especially not between Korean and non-Korean gamers – for us to get a real clear picture of where everyone stands. However, it's still way more fun to have speculative power rank than nothing at all. Also, we've really missed all of your arguing, so we just couldn't wait any longer.

What is the Power Rank?

"Who would beat whom in a best of 101 series with their lives on the line?" That crossed our minds. So did "Who had the best tournament results in the past X months?" Those, and many other questions factored in as we attempted to figure out the answer to a contentious question: "Who's better?" Through a complex and entirely unscientific process that even we don't understand, we arrived at some kind of ranking. A few notes:

• The Power Rank only takes players competing at DreamHack: Stockholm into account.
  
• The PR is not a ranking of everyone's chances to win this tournament. There's a lot of bracket luck involved, as well as a considerable advantage given to players who start with seeds, and doing a final ranking prediction would be pretty damn complicated. The Power Rank is just our all-around answer to the question "who's better?"
  
• Power Rank does not suggest that a higher ranked player is better than a lower ranked player in a head to head. Rankings are based on the overall appraisal of a player.
  
• It is possible that some players may be absent or cancel their attendance between the release of this article and the start of the tournament.
  
• The power rank is a compromise between the opinions of several writers, ensuring that not even the writers are happy with the end result.
  
• TeamLiquid is not responsible for rage or rage related injuries suffered as a result of reading the Power Rank.

Alright, let's get on with it!

The Power Rank

Honorable mentions: Liquid`TLO, Na`Vi.BabyKnight, Na`Vi.Strelok, NrSKrasS, NrSWelmu, Mill.Goswser

All left out to offend YOU, specifically.


#32: Mill.Dayshi

Maybe it's because we feel bad about mistreating the French all these years... Instead of relegating Dayshi to honorable mentions, we just expanded the rankings so we could give him a nod.

When Dayshi lost to Stephano at the finals of WCS France last year, “second best in France” wasn't all that meaningful a title. However, Dayshi has continued to improve since then, racking up a truly impressive string of online results in HotS, including qualification into the EU Premier League. DH:S will be his first real test in a live setting with Koreans present, where he can show that there's more to France in SC2 than just one player.

#31: Mill.Feast
#30 Acer.Bly
#29:

Acer.Nerchio
#28: Empire|Kas
#27: Liquid`Ret
#26 K3.VortiX

This part of the list we could generate in random order, and it would probably come out looking more or less reasonable. Here, we have players who we're giving the benefit of the doubt because they were too accomplished in WoL not to be listed (VortiX, Kas, Nerchio, Bly), a player who was excellent right after HotS release but we haven't seen much of since (Ret), and a player who had a pretty decent WoL career and impressed lately by breaking through the grueling WCS EU qualifiers (Feast). Weighing past results vs. more recent results is pretty confusing, and we admit that our player assessment was pretty messy. Still, it's not like we could have done a worse job than WCS.

#25: WW.SortOf

Yes, SortOf has only played one official HotS tournament game, that being a loss to Ganzi in the GSTL. But we'll put it this way: If NS HoSeo decided that SortOf was good enough to be their GSTL starter after just one month of practicing with them in Korea, then he's probably better than most of the foreigners at this tournament.

#24:

Empire|Happy

Not only is WCS a giant mess organizationally, but it's also giving us a headache trying to figure out how much weight it carries in the scene. In Korea, the GSL was a surefire way to rate a player, but just because WCS AM and EU emulate the GSL system doesn't mean it works the exact same way. In any case, Happy deserves a lot of kudos for his recent WCS accomplishments, being the very first player to break through the qualifiers, and then going on to progress through his Ro16 group with wins over HasuObs and Bly.

#23: Liquid`Zenio

Zenio has been relatively quiet as of late, appearing largely as a ZvZ specialist in the Proleague and making occasional appearances for Liquid in the Acer Teamstory Cup. He also made an attempt to qualify for WCS NA’s Premier Division, but lost in the early rounds to Alicia and Center. Just by virtue of being a Korean player practicing in a Korean team house, Zenio has to be rated higher than most of the competition. However, he's definitely one of the weaker Koreans coming to this tournament, and he will have to really up his play to avoid getting eliminated by his own countrymen.

#22: Quantic.Center

The former TSL player Center has spent the last few months stuck on the verge of breaking out. He showed potential in WoL by narrowly missing out on Code S on two occasions, even defeating players like Seed and ByuN before getting narrowly eliminated in the Up/Downs. Sadly for Center, his decision to region switch to NA couldn't get him over the hump, as he was knocked out of the Premier League qualifier by Jaedong. While Center is outmatched by better Koreans at DreamHack, it could still be the tournament where he finally make a deep run and breaks out from underneath the shroud of anonymity.

#21: FnaticSaSe

Sase's performances have always been very erratic compared to his Swedish rivals, but as the date of Dreamhack Stockholm approaches, it looks like he is finding his form just in time leave his mark. He just advanced from his WCS EU Premier group in first place with impressive wins over ForGG and Slivko, who both have been strong players in the EU scene. DreamHack Stockholm could be SaSe's chance to outdo ThorZaIN, NaNiwa, and all his other countrymen to make his claim for the crown of the north.

#20: EG.ThorZaIN.RC

The transition to Heart of the Swarm seems to have gone well for the defending DH: Stockholm champ Thorzain, as it allows him to play his slow and methodical "spoon"-style with greater efficiency than ever before. Thorzain has shown that he can fight evenly with the top Koreans when he has a truly great day, and he seems to play even better on Swedish soil. However, he will have to be truly extraordinary this weekend if he is to challenge the strongest Korean contingent to ever invade his homeland.

#19: CoCa
#18: Puzzle

Is this rank too high for a couple of guys who took an eight month break from StarCraft II to try their hand at professional League of Legends? Maybe. But no matter how much time they took off, we have to recognize that while they were still active, both CoCa and Puzzle were highly accomplished and very talented StarCraft II progamers.

FXOsC, another progamer who returned to SC2 from a foray into LoL, didn't take long to bring his skill level back up as he recently all-killed Axiom-Acer in the GSTL. Seeing as Puzzle was a Code S regular in the past, and CoCa even reached the finals of an MLG, they definitely have the raw talent to match the other title contenders at this tournament.

The key factor here is that while sC had the benefit of intensive practice at the FXO house, Puzzle and CoCa have been left to rehabilitate themselves on their own. While they can surely be great HotS progamers with enough time, there's no telling how ready they are for the tournament immediately in front of them.

#17: Liquid`Snute

Snute had the worst HotS debut possible, going 0 - 5 at the IEM World Championship. However, he's recovered very well since then, wrecking opponents in both online cups and in live competition at the ESET UK Masters where he took home the £4,000 first place prize. While Snute has great credentials against his fellow Europeans and even against Korean players in ZvZ, he has yet to overcome a tough Korean Protoss or Terran player (Sting? We said tough) in an important elimination match (he did come close against Bomber at IPL5). Snute may be in a very nice situation now as one of the best European Zergs, but he'll need to show that he can defeat Koreans in non-mirrors to take it to the next level.

#16: Definitely-not-EG.NaNiwa

One could argue that Naniwa is one of few foreigners with the experience, work ethic and raw talent necessary to take the fight to the Koreans this weekend. One could argue that despite a nearly empty match record in HotS, we should put our faith in NaNiwa, and believe that he has been practicing hard (even being sighted in Korea) to put the dispute over the Swedish throne to rest once and for all. Whatever the case, we're taking a leap of faith by putting NaNiwa up here as the highest ranked Swede of the tournament. With names like Gumiho, Polt, Leenock and Oz in attendance, the former GSL quarterfinalist has his work cut out for him. This is his time, more than ever before, to prove to everyone that he, and he alone, is the greatest Swedish Starcraft II player of all time, and we believe that he realizes this as well.

#15: EG.Stephano.RC

Speaking of leaps of faith, what are we to make of Stephano? Since he was eviscerated by Last at MLG Dallas, the only thing we've heard from him is his foretelling of his own retirement. Well, that and a string of tweets suggesting that he's been partying in LA for the last ten days. If Stephano has truly lost his passion and is in the midst of a pre-retirement tour of merry-making, then even his incredible natural talent won't save him. On the other hand, Stephano's skill level throughout his career has seemed more correlated with his mental state than the number of hours he puts into practice. We're ready to expect anything and everything from Stephano at Stockholm.

#14: EG.Jaedong.RC

The Tyrant is making his way to Sweden for the very first non-exhibition, international StarCraft II tournament of his career. Needless to say, he’ll be looking to make a splash. Though Jaedong has been very sharp in ZvZ, in WoL as well as the new expansion, he has a glaring weakness in his ZvP. He's 1-4 in Proleague this round and only 8 - 14 on the season. To make matters worse, Protoss is the most well represented race at DH: Stockholm, and Jaedong has even been placed alongside the Swedish terror, Sase, in his group. Jaedong will have to improve his game rapidly if he wants to withstand his worst match-up, the exhausting schedule, and the endless opponents at Stockholm.

#13: Quantic.HyuN

Creator, DRG, and Seed: these are all players who have struggled in the transition to HotS. None, however, have had as steep a drop from glory than the once GSL finalist, Hyun. At his peak, the Quantic Zerg looked Hyun-stoppable, especially in the IPL fight club, where he was reigning champion for over three months. No one could defeat him in the bo9 format and as he showed with his multiple Zotac cup trophies, tournament gauntlets weren't an issue for him either. Shortly afterwards, Hyun reached the finals of the last GSL in 2012, establishing himself not only as just an online hero, but as one of the top players in the world. He proceeded to lose in a nail-biting 3-4 series and then suddenly, everything changed.

HotS came abruptly came, an especially harsh reality for Zerg players as Zerg was revamped entirely and in most peoples' eyes, nerfed from their dominance in WoL. Hyun's team, TSL, previously a fortress of Zerg collaboration, disbanded, leaving Hyun in an unfamiliar position on foreign team Quantic. Finally, even IPL, Hyun's weekly paycheck, is but no more. With all these changes, Hyun's results were sure to suffer. With a <50% win rate in European based ATC and a 0-4 loss in his GSL Ro32 group, Hyun's stock has all but plummeted... all the way down to 13th.

#12:

mouz.MaNa

Parting might have compared MaNa to Creator in terms of gameplay, but he might actually be closer to PartinG, or even MC. While MaNa's certainly a good player, you'd never think from watching one of his games that he'd be one to rack up such an impressive tournament resume. Even if he doesn't have the superlative micro of those two illustrious Koreans, MaNa just has the same knack for making the right decisions, choosing the right builds, and simply being the better player (if not necessarily elevating his play) when the stakes grow higher.

While MaNa did get the socks knocked off him by viOLet and MVP at the IEM World Championship, he's gone on an impressive Korea-killing spree in the TeamStory Cup since then. Of course, live is a different story from online, but MaNa is a player who knows how to make the best case scenario happen.

#11: ROOT.YugiOh

There's no doubt about it. YuGiOh is a fighter. On the last day of Slayers, the rest of the team was getting ready to move-on and content to put on a good show. Yugioh was busy trying to all-kill MVP.

When Yugioh was knocked out of Code A, he was given the same choice as the rest of the Koreans. Stay in Korea to fight the best players in the world or play in WCS NA. Unlike many of the other Koreans, going to NA was actually a valid option for him due to being on a foreign team. No one would have blamed him for taking that path. All of the greats had left for easier waters: MVP, Nestea, and MMA. But Yugioh is a king, and Code A was a kingdom worth fighting for. YuGiOh decided to stay, and he easily crushed through his Code A qualifier. Some might say DreamHack Stockholm – boasting its strongest player pool ever – is too big of a challenge for YuGiOh to take on, but we're sure he's looking forward to it.

#10: ROOT.Sage

While Sage is not a household name like some of the other contenders, his performances online over the last few weeks have definitely turned a lot of heads. He has amassed one of the best records in Acer's Teamstory Cup (a league that includes top players from teams like Axiom and MVP), taking out strong players like Nerchio, Hyun, MMA, HerO, Ret and ForGG with all-around solid play across match-ups. He's still unbeaten against Zerg in the ATC, and has done pretty much all the work for ROOT in the league. But despite his very impressive online performances, Sage is still looking for that one tournament run that throws him into the public eye for good. He came close in Code A October of 2011, but was defeated by Oz in the semi-finals. Sage spent the following year and a half stuck in anonymity, so more than anyone at this tournament, he knows he can't squander this rare opportunity.

#9: K3.LucifroN

There are a lot of thrones ripe for the taking in HotS, and few as enticing as the one for dominion over all of Europe. With Stephano no longer being leaps and bounds above everyone else in Europe (or at least, he has laid low so far...), there is a line of players, both old and new, ready to declare themselves the new ruler of the old world. At the head of that line is Lucifron. While there have been no major live events since MLG, Lucifron has been destroying the online scene with his incredible performances in both ATC and WCS EU.

However, online results and prize money won can only take you so far in the quest for the throne, and if there was one slight against Lucifron, it's that he doesn't have an actual championship at a big, international tournament (no, beating your brother at WCS Spain doesn't count). While winning a tournament like The Gathering and taking 3rd at WCS EU is certainly impressive, there's nothing compared to cutting through a horde of Koreans and taking the gold. With Dreamhack gathering players from all around the world, the stage is set. For Lucifron, there has never been a better time than now.

#8: EG.Oz.RC

We've already given out a ton of past credit on this list, but Oz really takes the cake in terms of how much we're letting past performances dictate our assessment of a player in the present. Though the wonderful wizard never won a championship, he had the strangest ability to come into tournaments almost unnoticed and then magic his way into a top four finish. After leaving Fnatic he began upon a steep decline that saw him eliminated from the GSL as well as most international competitions, until he was fortuitously rescued by Evil Geniuses. His performances so far have been a mixed bag, and he has a 2 - 3 record at present in the Proleague. But at moments he's shown glimpses of that good sense, that intelligence for the game that once made him one of the most interesting players to watch. Maybe this is a few rungs too high, but we have hope for Oz is HotS.

#7: Mill.ForGG

Oh ForGG, why must you tease us so. Sometimes he looks like the best Terran in Europe, and sometimes he just looks like a ladder monster who can't cut it in real competition. It seems at the moment he is somewhere in-between. Although he recently advanced from his WCS EU group and went on a hot streak in the Acer TeamStory Cup, his form in the months prior did not live up to expectations, as dropped a surprising number of games and tournaments to top Europeans. For a player who was initially expected to dominate European competition, ForGG has been disappointing since his move to France.

Nevertheless this is Dreamhack, a grueling tournament format that does help ForGG's ladder-grinding builds and strategies. 2012's DreamHack Valencia was where ForGG came closest to winning his first major championship in StarCraft II, coming just one game away from defeating TaeJa at the height of his power. Replicating that kind of run is going to be a lot harder given the number of Koreans coming to the tournament, but don't underestimate the one-time MSL champion if things start clicking for him.

#6: EG.JYP.RC

It's amazing how JYP has managed to grind his way back into relevance. Never a notable player in international play, he was even knocked into Code B and into utter darkness without international or domestic competition to look forward to. Just as things became grim for JYP, Proleague and EG-TL came along out of nowhere, giving him a much needed chance to redeem himself.

While we can't say JYP experienced an incredible rebirth in Proleague, at the very least he's earned everyone's grudging respect by 'carrying' the team with his 10 - 10 record. For a team where every match is a struggle, having a consistent performer like JYP has been a godsend. JYP may not be the most glamorous player or the biggest name at the tournament, but his consistent and solid play over the last few months commands a good deal of respect.

#5: Liquid`HerO

As with many of the other players on this ranking, HerO's rank up here in fifth was at least partially a matter of faith. While he's proven himself to be quite a good PvP player in HotS, the fact remains that we've seen very few games of him in non-mirror match-ups. And when he has, he hasn't looked all that good, not having won a single non-mirror match-up since the HotS expansion came out.

Still, this is HerO, one of the most traveled and consistent competitors on the international circuit. Of the players in this entire tournament, only MC, Stephano, and Leenock can claim to have had more success and experience in the weekend tournament environment. DreamHack, in particular, is a tournament he has excelled in, with two champions won at the tour's grand finale at DreamHack Winter. Now that he's even becoming a clutch competitor in team tournaments under EG-Liquid's head coach Park, you have to think that many of the intangibles are going HerO's way, even if his gameplay is still somewhat in doubt.

#4: FXO.Leenock

With two MLG championships, an IPL champion, and an MLG runner-up trophy to his name, Leenock is one the best players in the world at the marathon-style tournaments favored outside Korea. If this were WoL, Leenock would easily take the #1 spot on this power rank.

Unfortunately for Leenock, he's stumbled noticeably since the release of Heart of the Swarm, with only a 6 - 9 record thus far (with three wins coming against BabyKnight). Most recently, he was knocked out of the Code Ro32 and down to the Challenger League. Granted, he was in this season's group of death, and most of his losses have come at the hands of top class opponents like Life, PartinG, and Innovation. Still, the Leenock of old would have been able to hold his own against such players.

Considering the fact that Leenock was one of the most successful players in WoL, and one capable of mastering multiple styles, we're willing to believe that his early troubles in HotS are just temporary and that he'll soon be able to hit his stride. However, if Leenock suffers an early elimination at Stockholm as well, we may have to seriously reevaluate Leenock in HotS.

#3: FXO.GuMiho

Finally, one of the most exciting players in all of StarCraft II gets his chance to show his skills to a huge international audience. Gumiho has long been known as a master of chaos in GomTV competition, using multi-prong attacks and mass drop tactics long before Blizzard tweaked Terran to encourage that sort of play. His aggressive tactics frequently produce highly entertaining games, and he was even one half of our best game of 2012.

While Gumiho is consistently great to watch, his skill level has been very inconsistent. After a Code S semi-final run in early 2012, he's had a lot of trouble getting over the Ro16 hump, even leading ST_Curious to pass him the title of Code S gatekeeper. However, there IS one setting where Gumiho has never failed to take it to another level: the GSTL finals. With a 5 – 0 performance against EG-SlayerS and 3 – 0 against team MVP, Gumiho was the single biggest contributor to team FXO's back to back GSTL championships.

The problem is that this is Gumiho's first international appearance, and there's no telling how such a mercurial player will adjust to a new environment. The good news for Gumiho is that he comes in off a dominating Code S performance, gong 4 - 0 over Rain and HyuN. If he can play at that level for the entire tournament, he's surely one of the favorites to win it all.

#2: SK_MC

At the last big international LAN, the MLG Winter Championship, MC cruised past his Protoss brothers into fourth place, mostly on the back of a style of revolutionary stargate PvT that had previously never been seen. At this tournament, he claimed that he was the only one playing HotS while all his contemporaries were still in the mindset of WoL. Since then, MC has developed into something he has always feared becoming: predictable. In his recent GSTL match against Axiom-Acer, Ryung blind countered MC's stargate style with preemptive turrets, turning this BO advantage into a solid win.

MC has also had blows dealt to him in the other two match-ups as first lost to Flying in the GSL, showing a poor understanding of late game PvP, and then to an out-of-form DRG. With these two loses, MC's hopes of winning the first HotS GSL end and so he turns to Europe. Still, with all his flaws, MC has always played off the beaten path and will be sure to bring innovative new styles to the tournament. His experience at these types of events will also play a big role, giving him an advantage over perhaps more in-form players such as Gumiho. MC may not be the favorite to win this tournament, but he's consistently solid enough to deserve this placement.

#1: CMStorm_Polt

In the history of Starcraft 2, there has not been a single player who has changed his public perception more than Polt. If you have just got into the scene or have only been following SC2 for the past year and a half or so, you know Polt as one of the most likable, loved and respected players in the entire community. Working towards becoming one of the first Korean players to become bilingual, his stream draws massive numbers whenever he plays and is always a fan favorite in whatever tournament he enters.

However, Polt was actually one of the most despised players in the early days of the GSL. Known for only beating players with cheese and never going beyond a second base, Polt was a player that most thought of as a one trick pony and someone who would fall off the face of the earth when players started getting better at the game. The fans completely turned on Polt during the opening rounds of a GSL in early 2011, when Polt called Jinro - the best foreigner at the time - someone who got through with luck and wasn't deserving to have gotten to the semifinals the season prior. To the fans glee, Jinro made Polt look foolish by beating up on him in the two games they played.

Shortly after that incident, Polt took a hiatus from university and became a full-time progamer. This proved to be a turning point, as his results skyrocketed, and he beat players like MC as he made deeper runs into Code S tournaments. He went on to win the Super Tournament, Assembly and other notable tournaments, proving he was not a one-trick pony after all by expanding his play and becoming a much better macro player. He started to stream, interacted with his audience, and quickly changed from a villain of the community to being seen as one of the nicest and most engaging Korean players.

Now, in another twist to his story, Polt has left Korea and gone to America to study English, continuing his efforts to bridge the gap between Korea and the foreigner world. To everyone's surprise, leaving Korea doesn't seem to have affected the level of his play at all. Polt has been excellent in Heart of the Swarm so far, crushing every Protoss he's met in tournament play, with his only major series loss so far being to Life, in a close 2 - 3 defeat at MLG Dallas. Life would go on to win the tournament, but Polt was the person who might have pushed the prodigy to his highest limits, only a few key moves away from taking the series.

With no Life in sight and most of the top Koreans entering the tournament being of the Protoss variety, Polt comes in as a strong favorite to continue his European dominance. In the two European tournaments he's entered, he has either won (Assembly) or come in second (last year's DH: Stockholm) with only Thorzain's Swedish magic being able to thwart him in a final. As a Korean player going to college in America and who plays his best Starcraft in Europe, Polt is a rare breed that is breaking down walls and defying the odds every time he plays.

Writers: Fionn, kollin, monk, stuchiu, Waxangel, Wunder, and Zealously.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Editor: Waxangel.