Power Rank 07/02/2010 - Page 27

On July 06 2010 04:37 zer0das wrote:
I don't have the internet at my home for the next few days, because I'm moving. I've taken this as an opportunity to watch old VODs I downloaded back in the days of yore where you couldn't find every game on youtube. While I think Plexa's reasoning is terrible, I still think he got Flash on top right.

Here's why: back in the days of Etter being the king, Bisu sat on top for 6 power ranks (and another FakeSteve one). And here's the thing- he was complete and utter trash in proleague. I have VODs of him losing to ChRh and Boxer in absolutely depressing fashion, almost single handily causing MBC to lose the match. And this was the norm! And yet he was still on top of the pile.

And you want to know why? Starleagues! No one had the potential to plow his way through the competition like Bisu, even if he was complete garbage in proleague. I'm not exactly sure at what point people started to put so much weight on proleague, but quite frankly Flash just won a MSL gold and an OSL silver, and Jaedong was not the reason he got the OSL silver- in fact, Jaedong just got 3-0ed by him. Yeah, okay, Flash lost to Effort in the MSL group stage. He's been kind of sketchy in proleague. But you know what? He just came off being in both finals back to back, and there's really no good reason to believe he won't do it again, aside from the fact that he'd have to be a freak to do it. But that's pretty much what he is.

On July 07 2010 07:21 Plexa wrote:
The thing 90% of the people complaining about this ranking don't get is that the PR tries to look beyond the simple statistic. You can't accurately gauge the performance of a player by his record. The PR is meant to reward players who play good starcraft in the previous month (or two if necessary) and try to give you an accurate gauge of who is the best starcraft player at the moment. In other words, if you were a betting man - which players would you want to put your money on. Despite how well Jaedong played in June and how mediocre Flash's record, the statistics were deceptive.

On July 07 2010 08:38 Plexa wrote:
PL is a fickle beast, anyone - and I mean anyone - can lose 1-2 games in a night. If you look at it completely from a statistics point of view - even if you have an 80% winrate there is a small chance you can lose twice. It happens.

On July 07 2010 19:54 Mortality wrote:
I don't at all think the players put more weight on Proleague than individual league games, except for maybe the Proleague finals. Especially not now that palyers don't know who they are facing. But even before, where was it that players would do their match fixing? Starleague or Proleague?

Also, to Goragoth: I don't at all think that Zero is a streaky player. His ZvT and ZvP have consistently been among the best for over a year now. He's #2 in both ZvT and ZvP ELO for a reason. What kills him is his ZvZ, 10-15 so far this year. Terrible compared with his 13-6 ZvT record and 13-3 ZvP record. (I'm just using the start of 2010 as a reference point to get a large enough sample to be meaningful -- in point of fact, Zero's ZvZ seemed to be steadily declining until very recently).

On July 07 2010 22:03 setzer wrote:


Yes they do. Players routinely say they practice more for proleague than individual leagues in their interviews. Proleague has become much more important to players because the team aspect has become much more important. Player contracts are even setup now to reward players who perform well with bonuses and PL weights a lot more heavily when deciding whether to extend contracts and increase salaries. JWD admitted as such in the August 09 ranking with the words:

"Now blatantly obvious: Proleague has usurped the OSL's position as StarCraft's most prestigious contest. The 08-09 PL's massive season and suitably epic new playoff format have garnered an unprecedented level of attention from from fans, media, sponsors, coaches, and players; the Power Rank ought follow suit. Individual league best-ofs can no longer be the litmus test for PR placement. Even ignoring his OSL and MSL victories but considering his loss in GOM, Jaedong deserves this rank's top spot for carrying Hwaseung with two crucial single-set wins on BW's new biggest stage."

On July 07 2010 22:39 Mortality wrote:


Quote taken out of context alert.

You forget that August 2009 was when the Proleague Grand Finals were taking place. Kind of a different story than a regular PL game. The Proleague Grand Finals is the most prestigious stage in Starcraft. Random PL matches, however, mean absolute shit compared to SL matches.

And when it comes to contracts, the biggest contracts are held by players who have won Starleagues.

On July 07 2010 02:59 PeT[uK] wrote:
ZERO neeeeds to be on this list. He is most definitely one of the top 10.

On July 07 2010 23:24 sixfour wrote:


when someone's best wins in a given month are against jangbi and hyuk, they don't. zero had an awful june

On July 08 2010 22:09 Musoeun wrote:
Why does free suck in individual leagues? Just wondering.

On July 08 2010 22:09 Musoeun wrote:
Why does free suck in individual leagues? Just wondering.

On July 07 2010 22:47 setzer wrote:


And coincidentally those players just happen to perform really well in PL too. And just because that was posted during the 09 playoffs does not mean it is not true for all of proleague. Most players know they have little to no chance of ever winning a SL. Getting onto the a-team and being fielded for proleague is to many more important than making the ro32 of the OSL. I think you are looking at this too narrowly.