On August 03 2010 10:42 MyLifeForIron wrote: Just like Jim Rice took a zillion years to get into the baseball hall of fame. Reporters remembered that snarly-ass attitude...and got even by not voting for him.
It wasn't so much "got even" as he didn't deserve to make the Hall based on numbers. I'm still a bit perplexed by his election.
On August 03 2010 02:44 Musoeun wrote: I actually don't have many problems with this rank. BeSt and free should be higher, but I concluded a while ago that Plexa hates Protoss. Light on the PR is a little questionable but not too bad. I'd put Sea over fantasy and EffOrt. Minor things.
Plexa hates Protoss? I'm pretty sure he plays Protoss.
The reality is that Protoss players just haven't been dishing out results. Free maybe could have been a bit higher, but I can't seem him even being considered top 5 given the strength of Flash, JD, Effort, Sea, and Fantasy.
Best has been playing well for the first time now in a while. Until July, it seemed like he could only win in PvT. Even now, I wouldn't trust his PvZ to win over any competent Zerg in a bo5. You may consider Light's rank questionable for the same reasons and I'd agree (hey, I like Light and I like Best, but both of them have serious weaknesses).
Riddle me this: why is Stork above free? If Stork is #7, then free should be #6 at least. He doesn't have the same win rate, but he's gotten just as far in the OSL and got farther in the MSL. And hasn't played in the Masters yet (4 of Stork's 8 wins).
I don't think I'd have put Stork over Free either. Stork's play was really good, but Free has been hanging out in the coveted top Protoss spot for the past 3 months or so. Maybe Bisu might be stronger, but I'm hesitant on Bisu's PvT. Free really is the most underrated dragon.
But I have no idea how you are construing Free's relatively low ranking as some kind of general Protoss hate.
On August 03 2010 09:13 Severedevil wrote: Protoss were kind of boned on maps for a while. Notice the current revival comes when Protoss-friendly maps enter the map pool.
Revival of Protoss? Is that why no Protoss are left in MSL? Is that why Protoss only advanced three players from the Ro36 in OSL?
And looking at the OSL situation, Bisu must beat Action in order to advance. If he loses to Action, then he and Effort will be 0-2 and Leta and Action will be 2-0 and then the last week's games won't matter. Similarly, Pure can only advance if he beats Jaedong and Jaedong beats and Hydra loses both remaining games (that, at least, is somewhat likely), forcing a three way tie-breaker against Jaedong and Hydra. Group D is the main hope for Protoss to go far in this tournament.
"I say that in light of the recent game against Zero which is being hailed as the defining reason why Flash should be number one. True, it was an impressive game and Flash's mechanics were top notch. It was a superb game in every way. But then I think to myself, what if Effort were playing in this position and not Zero? Well the answer is, and was, that Effort would win (see their clash on Fighting Spirit). Effort has Flashes number and knows how to defeat his late-game turtle style"
this is complete and utter bullsh*t, in that FS game effort had ridiculous economic advantage because he faked 2 hatch lurker and sneaked an expo instead, and only way he can beat flash is with risky, cheesy moves like that, every other flash vs effort game that lasted over 10 min was a decisive win for flash
Power rank is a little better than last month. The defensive tone is unnecessary, since a PR is not a defense, but a statement of your opinion. A couple of players, like Pure, Calm and Hiya, might've deserved a mention, though I'm not sure. At least, I'm glad that Flash is not the-one-that-shall-not-be-criticized anymore and that Effort gets a bit more recognition.
again a late game with severe econ disadvantage for flash
check their eots game in osl finals:
effort gets away with 3 base 3 hat before pool and holds it off, gets 4th up vs flash's 2 but still loses cause he can't keep up with multitask in late game unless he has monsterous advantage
On August 03 2010 19:03 Insight wrote: "I say that in light of the recent game against Zero which is being hailed as the defining reason why Flash should be number one. True, it was an impressive game and Flash's mechanics were top notch. It was a superb game in every way. But then I think to myself, what if Effort were playing in this position and not Zero? Well the answer is, and was, that Effort would win (see their clash on Fighting Spirit). Effort has Flashes number and knows how to defeat his late-game turtle style"
this is complete and utter bullsh*t, in that FS game effort had ridiculous economic advantage because he faked 2 hatch lurker and sneaked an expo instead, and only way he can beat flash is with risky, cheesy moves like that, every other flash vs effort game that lasted over 10 min was a decisive win for flash
We've been over this a million times, your argument is based upon a tremendous double standard in which you ridicule EffOrt's mindgame abuse of Flash as "cheesy" and ignore the abusive econ builds that Flash plays on a regular basis.
To win games, you should probably go about getting a huge economic advantage, that's how the game works, and you can't fault players for being good at it. Flash and EffOrt are both excellent at getting and holding the advantage. You can show me one game on EotS, and I can show you a game on FS, or a game on Judgment Day. We're back at square one. One comeback win for Flash doesn't prove anything between two excellent players.
I'm not going to get into this with you beyond that. This is a pretty tired line of argument.
On August 03 2010 19:03 Insight wrote: "I say that in light of the recent game against Zero which is being hailed as the defining reason why Flash should be number one. True, it was an impressive game and Flash's mechanics were top notch. It was a superb game in every way. But then I think to myself, what if Effort were playing in this position and not Zero? Well the answer is, and was, that Effort would win (see their clash on Fighting Spirit). Effort has Flashes number and knows how to defeat his late-game turtle style"
this is complete and utter bullsh*t, in that FS game effort had ridiculous economic advantage because he faked 2 hatch lurker and sneaked an expo instead, and only way he can beat flash is with risky, cheesy moves like that, every other flash vs effort game that lasted over 10 min was a decisive win for flash
We've been over this a million times, your argument is based upon a tremendous double standard in which you ridicule EffOrt's mindgame abuse of Flash as "cheesy" and ignore the abusive econ builds that Flash plays on a regular basis.
To win games, you should probably go about getting a huge economic advantage, that's how the game works, and you can't fault players for being good at it. Flash and EffOrt are both excellent at getting and holding the advantage. You can show me one game on EotS, and I can show you a game on FS, or a game on Judgment Day. We're back at square one. One comeback win for Flash doesn't prove anything between two excellent players.
I'm not going to get into this with you beyond that. This is a pretty tired line of argument.
Yeah but Effort is demonstrably bad against Mech! The guy picked the totally wrong argument there.
On August 03 2010 09:13 Severedevil wrote: Protoss were kind of boned on maps for a while. Notice the current revival comes when Protoss-friendly maps enter the map pool.
Revival of Protoss? Is that why no Protoss are left in MSL? Is that why Protoss only advanced three players from the Ro36 in OSL?
And looking at the OSL situation, Bisu must beat Action in order to advance. If he loses to Action, then he and Effort will be 0-2 and Leta and Action will be 2-0 and then the last week's games won't matter. Similarly, Pure can only advance if he beats Jaedong and Jaedong beats and Hydra loses both remaining games (that, at least, is somewhat likely), forcing a three way tie-breaker against Jaedong and Hydra. Group D is the main hope for Protoss to go far in this tournament.
In the proleague, Protoss did much better in successive rounds following the WL low point. The statistics were brought up in another thread. Hell, even the PR you're commenting on features four P, the most we've had in a while.
The introduction of Polaris Rhapsody surely has a lot to do with it, as the first genuinely pro-P map we've had since Destination, but can't be whole story as it's increasingly used as a PvP ghetto, with the only best non-P vP'ers even being considered for it. A large part may just be, while Protoss have always sort of been the third rail of BW progaming, their underperformance in late 2009/early 2010 was a statistical anomaly. There was bound to be some regression back toward the mean.
On August 03 2010 09:13 Severedevil wrote: Protoss were kind of boned on maps for a while. Notice the current revival comes when Protoss-friendly maps enter the map pool.
Revival of Protoss? Is that why no Protoss are left in MSL? Is that why Protoss only advanced three players from the Ro36 in OSL?
And looking at the OSL situation, Bisu must beat Action in order to advance. If he loses to Action, then he and Effort will be 0-2 and Leta and Action will be 2-0 and then the last week's games won't matter. Similarly, Pure can only advance if he beats Jaedong and Jaedong beats and Hydra loses both remaining games (that, at least, is somewhat likely), forcing a three way tie-breaker against Jaedong and Hydra. Group D is the main hope for Protoss to go far in this tournament.
In the proleague, Protoss did much better in successive rounds following the WL low point. The statistics were brought up in another thread. Hell, even the PR you're commenting on features four P, the most we've had in a while.
The introduction of Polaris Rhapsody surely has a lot to do with it, as the first genuinely pro-P map we've had since Destination, but can't be whole story as it's increasingly used as a PvP ghetto, with the only best non-P vP'ers even being considered for it. A large part may just be, while Protoss have always sort of been the third rail of BW progaming, their underperformance in late 2009/early 2010 was a statistical anomaly. There was bound to be some regression back toward the mean.
I'm hesitant to call it a "Protoss revival" without some individual league results. We may have had an upturn in Proleague results, but so far we're seeing a downturn in individual league results, making it a moot point. Protoss can win on Polaris Rhapsody -- fine. But can they win elsewhere? The situation seems grim.
As for "underperformance," it's because of metagame. Zerg was on top of the metagame at that time and ZvP balance was swinging way in favor of Zerg. It wasn't really an anomaly, more like a byproduct.
Gosh. JD vs. Sea, Effort vs. Light, SKT vs. KT. I have NO IDEA how to liquibet that. Anyway, great games incoming and very important for next months PR.