Finnish Starcraft League - Page 2

Korea: No discussion here I hope. Stonger than Finland (#1)

Sweden: Still clear Nr.2 for me, having the current best foreigner and a very large amout of dangerous guys (Sase, ThorZaIN, SortOf, Sjow, hOpe, Bischu, vipro) and than after that another group of players only shortly behind (Rest of property gamiong, Morow, Starnan) Stronger than Finland (#2)

Ukraine: As much, as it hurts me to say, but the Ukraine is not as dominant as in the past anymore. White-Ra is´nt his former self anymore, Fraer is gone, DIMAGA is incosistent (just look at his DH group), Kas is good, but suffers a lot from nerve issues, Strelok and Bly droped to Code B and Happyzerg seems to be the only newcomer. In theory, just looking at the names, the Ukraine is monstruos, but since all of them have a tendency to underperform lately, I can´t really rate them above Finland anymore.

Russia: Hard to judge. They have Happy and Titan, who can both play extremely well or end up dissappointing early. Then there is Livezerg, Brat_OK, sLivko, Revolver, but I can´t think of too many others either (counting pro7ect as korean). I´d say about even.

USA: Hard to judge; elfi and Welmu are probably stronger than every US player (Goswser comes close, though), but after that the US gets really big, just because of the amout of players they have (Suppy, puck, Minigun, Vibe, neeb, state, Illusion, qxc), while Finland has Protosser, Naama, Serral, Satiini (He still exists and beats players with a bigger name in ZOTAC and stuff, although he does´nt play the big stuff anymore), Jagelius, retired Fuzer... It i hard to judge, but I still give a small edge to Finland here, because of their stronger top players.

Canada: Same as in the US, it is hard to judge, because there is not that much intercontinental play happening. I´d say, the first 4 places are pretty clear (Scarlett>Elfi/Welmu>HuK) and after that, there is not much to compare. Canada has a bunch of known players. Canadas follow-up (Hendralisk, Kane, Jig, desrow, Drunkenboi) does seem weaker than the finnish players, I listed above; I think, I would at least rate Naama/Protosser/Fuzer above them, but that is not based on much. All in all, I´d say, it is about even.

Germany: I´ll say it now; I´m probably biased here, but I think Germany has a really strong SC2 playing roster. Hasu is probably still on top and at about the same level as the finnish tosses, with TLO, Heromarine and Showtime coming close behing. Socke is not in his best shape atm, but still pretty good, Krass was in premier league and Delphi, Hanfy and Monty were all pretty close to qualification this season. Also it still has it´s EPS regulars in GoOdy, Tarra, Acro and co. and a bunch of other notables, such as kaup, Knowme, Darkhydra, Saltthewound... I think, Germany is stronger than Finland (#3)

China: I don´t know that much about the chinese scene, but their current invasion of WCS NA and the results of iG in ATC are pretty much telling the story: Top, Macsed, Jim, XY, Comm , Xigua are all pretty good. I tink, if China gets someone on Naniwa-level, they might become the biggest challenger for sweden for second place. Stronger than Finland. (#4)

Shorter Thoughts on the other ones:

Netherlands: With Ret´s struggeling, I would not put them above Finland atm. They still have Grubby/Harstem/uThermal/Jona, but I don´t think, that that is enough, given Finlands 2 top-P´s and their wide field of players.

Spain: To dependet on Duran². I don´t think, the strengh on an entire country should be measured on 2 players. Finland > Spain.

Poland: Possibly up there. Nerchio is in form, MaNa is currently not. Poland has a solid back up with paranOid, Diestar, Tefel, DaNa, uzer. About even.

France: Dayshi does not really get the results everyone expects from him. Since he and ToD are the only real international high level players in France (with Neoangel, Firecake a bit behind), I would put Finland ahead of them.

Denmark/Norway: Similar problem to Spain, to dependent on their top 2 (Babyknight, Bunny / TargA, Snute). Denmark is on it´s way to fix this (with most notably Storm and pink goind deep in online brackets), it is not enough for me.

elfi
PuPu
MeteoRain
Calt

Welmu
Satiini
Wibang
Ike

Serral
Naama
Ouga
Tulimeri

Protosser
Jagelius
Aktivisti
ZhuGeLiang