On September 06 2011 06:47 Sphaero wrote:On September 06 2011 04:19 Golgotha wrote:
I think Tzain is underrated
Really? Pretty much everywhere I look (especially on TL), he is considered the best non korean Terran, which fits his skill level and his results.
My pick is a player, who is actually very succesful and widely known, but doesn´t get the respect he deserves: Socke.
Despite not having one big pay day aka major international title yet, he is the 4th highest non korean earner, when it comes to price money (behind White-Ra, HuK and NaNi). This alone should speak volumes about his consistency.
Since MLG Raleigh in August 2010, where he left the first big expression on the world scene with a 3rd place, the guy has delivered in nearly every major lan tournament he attended:
Top 8 in both DH´s
Top 6 in IEM Kiev and Top 4 in IEM Cologne
Top 4 Assembly Winter
Top 6 MLG Dallas 2011
All finishes in the money. The only lans, where he really underperformed were IEM Hannover (still took a 3 hour tie-breaker to stop him from advancing) and the last MLG he attended.
On top of that come several titles and high finishes online, success at lesser known lans like the Gadget Inv. in England and ESL Torneo in Spain and of course his two titles in the German EPS (which itself featured every high level german player and some EU heavywheights like Cloud and Demuslim).
Now with this all in mind, some people want to tell me, that he doesn´t even belong to the Top EU protoss players, that he isn´t on the same level as players like Sase, Hasu or Mana (nothing against them, they are all great, but haven´t more accomplished than Socke)?
He is nearly always despicted as the underdog in match ups against other high level foreigners. A good example is the Shoutcraft Inv. II, where the suprise was great for the casters (the only thing that bothered me in an otherwise great event), when he defeated Nerchio, Sheth and later won the whole thing. I didn´t understand it, because he was actually the most accomplished in the whole line-up.
For over a year now with lots of game changing patches (like the removal of the KA), shifts in the meta game and upcoming and downgoing stars, the guy plays at the highest level outside Korea. He never hit a real slump, has positive win rates in every match up in over 700 games, which due to the fact, that he frequently plays only major lans and invitationals, are against mostly other top players.
For me, he belongs to the ten best non koreans overall and is surely not treated like one.
EPT
