You are right on calling me out on the lack of analysis, but I disagree with your assessment. Consider this analogy: a baseball player with a 1,000 OPS is a better baseball player than one with a 600 OPS. This statement is objectively true (baring some sort of ridiculous disparity in fielding and positional adjustments), even if it lacks analysis. A proper analysis would discuss each players tools and swing mechanics, and evaluate which player is beter based on the most fine grained information available. Regardless of a lack of analysis, though, the statement "a player with a 1000 OPS is, ceteris parabus, better than a player with a 600 OPS," is true. Bringing the analogy back to esports, my statement that Huk is better than Thorzain because Huk has posted better results in the same tournament is a strong argument in spite of its lack of fine-grained analysis.
You rightly point out that the idea that Huk should not be in Code S because he lost to MC, who is now code B (insert sad, crying zelot picture here), is a really bad argument. I think you are wrong, though, in your reasoning for why this is a bad argument. This is a bad argument because it grossly ignores the tournament format and the nature of the game.
The tournament format creates for a situation wherein one (series) loss resets a player to a certain base level. A loss either sets a player to the code S ro 32, the up and down matches, the code A ro 32, or code B. The above logic that a Huk's loss to MC (now a code B player) makes Huk a code B level player falsely assumes that any loss by player X to player Y makes player X to be at or less than the level of player Y. This, of course, is not true. If Huk, for example, looses to SUPESTAR, he would not be, nor should he be, moved down to code A. A single loss can only move a player down one level. MC resides in code B because of multiple losses; to assert that Huk's loss to a (now) code B player makes Huk code B inexplicably ignores the structure of the tournament he is competing in.
In terms of skill (and formal argumentation), the assertion that "MC beat Huk, and MC is code B, therefore Huk is code B" is flatly invalid, because (at least) it ignores the fact that the game involves a minimum of three match-ups. MC beating Huk shows that MC is better at PvP, which says nothing about Huk's PvT or PvZ. Any one series can, at most, show one third of a player's skill. MC could have (and actually did) drop to code B because of his shaky ability in PvZ and PvT. The fact that MC now resides in the ignominy of code B does not prove anything more than Huk's PvP is not up to typical code S standard, which, incidentally, Huk has freely admitted for months.
Also, I disagree with your argument that Sen and Thorzain are better than Huk for two reasons. Firstly, it confounds current metagame balance with player skill. Secondly, your assertion that Sen and Thorzain may be better than Huk lacks any sort of analysis.
Taking the second point first, you say that this is something you would bet on, which, ordinarily, I would be fine with. Brevity, in the proper context, can trump analysis. But you criticized me for a lack of analysis in my argument, then presented something that can not even be considered an argument, and then provided no analysis for your assertion.
. If you are going to criticize for a lack of analysis, at least provide some analysis in your own post.
Secondly, and more importantly, your assessment of the current metagame and how it should affect our evaluation of players runs entirely backward. Your argument for Sen/Thorzain (both terran) runs as follows: 1. Huk and Sen/Thorzin are of vaguely comparable skill. 2. Currently, terran has an advantage over protoss. 3. Therefore, because these players are at least vaguely comparable, Thorzin/Sen, both terran, are better players than Huk.
This argument is junk: Huk's playing the currently inferior race should work
in favor of Huk, not against him. Sen/Thorzain are, even by what your statement seems to imply, getting a boost from playing a race that is currently heavily favored in the metagame, which should lead you to favor Huk in your analysis of who is the best foreigner. Think of this in mathematical terms: Sen/Thorzain + metagame advantage = (or at least is comparable to) Huk. Huk is the better player, but the added metagame (or balance or whatever you want to call it) advantage favors the terran players. As you state in your post, were Sen/Thorzain to play Huk, you would (rightly) bet against Huk. But this seems to be because Huk is not only battling Sen/Thorzin, but also a rather serious metagame disadvantage.
The fact that Huk has stayed in code S
in spite of a metagame disadvantage explains why he is better than Sen/Thorzain. Sen and Thorzin remain in code A even with the added advantage of playing terran. Huk, though, has remained in code S despite the notable disadvantage of playing protoss.
Returning to the baseball analogy, consider a slugger with an OPS of 1,000 at the height of the dead ball era (1910, for example) and a slugger with an 1,100 OPS in the height of the 'live ball' (read: steroid) era. Strictly speaking, the hitter with the 1,100 OPS hit better than the hitter with the 1,000 OPS. But this is a rather facile analysis. If you take any sort of context into consideration, the player who put up a 1,000 OPS in a low-offense environment is clearly better than one who posted an 1,100 OPS in a high-offense environment.
Back to esports, Huk has remained in code S even though the current state of the game is significantly disadvantageous to protoss. Obviously you should take Sen/Thorzin over Huk right now, just as you would, without any other analysis, take an 1,100 OPS hitter over a 1,000 OPS hitter. But this hardly means that the 1,100 OPS hitter is better than the 1,000 OPS hitter, all things considered.
Huk, to beleaguer the analogy, is hitting in a low-offense environment. In some artificially limited fantasy world, the (roided out) slugger from 2000 with a 1,100 OPS is better than the 1910 slugger with an OPS of 1,000. But it is only under the most arbitrary of conditions that the dead ball era hitter would be considered worse than the live ball era hitter.
Huk plays protoss, yet he has maintained his code S status. The arduous state of the protoss race should make his continued code S status all the more impressive.
Huk, in short, is clearly a better player than Sen/Thorzin, and I feel is the best foreigner in the world. Facing the toughest competition, he has held his own in spite of playing protoss during a time that is distinctly unfriendly to the race.
EPT
