Plexa sir, I must first say that you have a hard job. Next, I shall say that you screwed up 1 and 2 again, much like last month. As much as I am a fan of JD, I don't believe he deserves #1 over Flash this month. His ZvP dominance seems to be fading a bit (sloppy play vs Kal), he's losing some games in ZvZ(7-3 in his last 10 which is actually bad for JvZ), and his ZvT is still shaky (Loss to Sea, we haven't seen him just DOMINATE the matchup yet). I must also ask where Hiya is because I miss my magikarp.
Couple other things to note on why I don't like this:
Stop penalizing Flash for not playing as many games. He's not playing as many because he didn't fail out of starleagues last season and because he carried his team for four rounds such that the 5th round was almost completely inconsequential. He's suffering because he played better before?
Don't dismiss his wins against Violet. Violet's PvT has dramatically improved. Check out his game against Midas for perfect PvT.
Nice write-up. You did a good job deciding on #1/#2 given how hard it is with Flash not playing lately.
As sad as it is for me to see MBC lose in PL, it seems to have taken a lot of weight off of Light and Sea's shoulders so that they can perform with all of their effort in the individual leagues. I hope that at least one of them wins their Ro8 match in the MSL.
It's nice to see Stork and Bisu both back on the PR again. I hate Protoss as much as the next Terran, but it's sad to see the MSL Ro8 without a single Protoss. Hopefully Protoss players can start winning again soon.
I really don't agree with 1 and 2 again at all. Last month Jaedong is playing great and Flash is stumbling, and you decide to make Flash number 1. This month when the games matter most at the end of the most Flash looks really solid again while Jaedong looks shaky (The games against Kal and Sea were BAD by his and number 1 power rank standards).
Your reasoning for 1 and 2 is really sketchy in my opinion.
I do agree with Fantasy at number 3 though and I would have Bisu at 5, but thats nit picking. But yeah, besides messing up the top 2 again in my opinion a pretty good rank.
I think Flash showed his bonjwa level of play again in the last couple of games. I'm quite convinced he's back now, and since he was #1 last month he should've kept it once more. JD has a good record, but he's been stomping mostly mediocre opponents this month (like the 2 Bo3's he got to play in OSL, which Flash didn't because he kicked serious ass last season unlike JD) and didn't look too impressive doing it. The game vs Ssak on Dreamliner for example would've been a loss vs any competent Terran (like it was against Sea). With the 0-2 vs SKT that ended up costing his team the playoffs combined with the very shaky play he showed at the end of the month and the fact that his ZvP looks beatable again, I think he has to do more to dethrone Flash. They started out on pretty much even ELO at the start of the month, and now Flash is 17 points ahead.
Heh, as soon as the BoX's started again Flash went on his longest winning streak since the 3-0 vs JD (and the following PL game). I think he just had a little mini-slump since there were no Starleagues to own in. Given that JD could've had the #1 last month but didn't get it, which by the way meant that Flash broke the #1 streak record , I'm quite ok with him getting it this month instead (although I disagree with it). Flash will retake it soon enough.
I'm liking this power rank with my initial reading of it, but got to think more about it. I agree with it for the most part, but I'll probably be back later to argue a bit :>
On August 02 2010 01:03 flamewheel wrote: I'm liking this power rank with my initial reading of it, but got to think more about it. I agree with it for the most part, but I'll probably be back later to argue a bit :>
It's the exact opposite of last month, all the KT rolster fanboys are disappointed in #1/2 instead of hwaseung lol
I like Flash, but I think that he will earn back his spot in the next month since he seems to be picking it up. Seems, not necessarily is. I don't think we've seen enough of his play to know that for sure. I think that's why Plexa mentioned the lesser game count, not merely because he played less: we didn't have the opportunity to see enough games for Flash to show dominating gameplay consistently. Had he shown domination in all or most his games, or had he had more opportunities to do so, I don't think that even hardcore JD fanboys could argue that Flash wasn't #1. But he didn't , especially on the back of those dreadful vT losses (talking about people having "solved" his vT, in my opinion, is about Flash's fairly predictable vT; whereas against Fantasy, you never know whether he's going to go 2 port wraith or mass vultures. However against Flash, you almost always expect to see 1fac expand into tank and vulture with starport, going for wraiths if opponent does, or going for dropship after he gains air superiority / his opponent starts making dropships. This allows for people to tailor builds based on his predictability (fantasy killed flash's proxy rax, made a proxy fact himself, and owned Flash on match point). Unless Flash starts mixing it up, it will be too easy to call his vT "solved".
That all being said, I fully expect to see Flash as the top dawg on next month's ranking \o/
Not sure I agree with Jaedong for #1 even though I am a big fanboy, that game vs Sea hurt my soul... but I'd say its so close between them that it shouldn't be too controversial.
Hiya though. That guy has belonged in the CNBC section for a while now...
Good list Plexa, I may disagree a bit but overall the choices and explanations are reasonable. Only real complaint is that Hiya should have gotten a CNBC.
Picking Jaedong/Flash for this month was pretty hard, but I agree with Plexa that I'm more convinced of Jaedong's strength/scariness then I am Flash's, partly because of Jaedong's higher game count. Their win % are pretty close but Jaedong played almost twice as many games so I'm more convinced of Jaedong's skill level. I am somewhat penalizing Flash for playing less games, but the other main reason I'm more convinced by Jaedong is that Jaedong had a great June whereas Flash had a bad June. It's still pretty close but I have to agree with Plexa's choice for Jaedong at #1.