• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 18:41
CEST 00:41
KST 07:41
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash8[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy13ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book20
Community News
Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple6Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research7Weekly Cups (March 16-22): herO doubles, Cure surprises3Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool49Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win4
StarCraft 2
General
Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy What mix of new & old maps do you want in the next ladder pool? (SC2) herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Season 4 announced for March-April StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) WardiTV Mondays World University TeamLeague (500$+) | Signups Open
Strategy
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Frigid Storage Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026]
External Content
Mutation # 519 Inner Power The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 518 Radiation Zone Mutation # 517 Distant Threat
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Build Order Practice Maps Pros React To: SoulKey vs Ample [ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro24 Group F Azhi's Colosseum - Foreign KCM [ASL21] Ro24 Group E [ASL21] Ro24 Group D
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game General RTS Discussion Thread Darkest Dungeon
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Money Laundering In Video Ga…
TrAiDoS
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1221 users

The Three Minds of a Starcraft Competitor - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 All
istandwithmitt
Profile Joined September 2012
Brazil117 Posts
September 20 2013 12:24 GMT
#41
yeah but what pokemon are they?
Slydie
Profile Joined August 2013
1935 Posts
September 20 2013 13:04 GMT
#42
Also in the end of WoL when almost every zerg would go bl-infestor, that would classify them all as...?
Buff the siegetank
ZenithM
Profile Joined February 2011
France15952 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-09-20 13:17:40
September 20 2013 13:16 GMT
#43
On September 20 2013 22:04 Slydie wrote:
Also in the end of WoL when almost every zerg would go bl-infestor, that would classify them all as...?

They were all the purest of Masterminds. They knew their shit.
Meanwhile Terrans and Protosses were fat smoking Athletes.
Zvonimir
Profile Joined September 2013
Australia22 Posts
September 20 2013 13:28 GMT
#44
On September 20 2013 22:04 Slydie wrote:
Also in the end of WoL when almost every zerg would go bl-infestor, that would classify them all as...?


Brood lord infestor was such an efficient unit composition that it was the dominant force in both vP and vT (and occasionally vZ, RoRo vs Symbol Grand Finals Game 1... Never Forget...). The differences came in how players reach that composition and how they deal with stumbling blocks along the way. During this period and Symbols run to the finals, regardless of his late game, patient play I still had the feel of rigid build orders defining his play. Life is a good example as he would buck the trend and slow his tech in order to have units on the field to exact damage against his opponent with, I always saw him as an athlete.

So there are still distinctions, but like Protoss, it becomes more difficult to discern the style from the noise of the races mechanics/meta.
Boucot
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
France15997 Posts
September 20 2013 13:38 GMT
#45
Amazing work, I enjoyed this article a lot !
Former SC2 writer for Millenium - twitter.com/Boucot
Zvonimir
Profile Joined September 2013
Australia22 Posts
September 20 2013 13:40 GMT
#46
On September 20 2013 21:05 DarkLordOlli wrote:
Now here's the thing. Player example: LiquidHerO (of course.)



When considering Hero, I always look back to his multiple sets/games against Rain. Rain being the definitive Protoss Mastermind. There are multiple occasions of Hero being unable to exact damage from Rain, or of having achieved damage but failing to capitalise on the lead. Ultimately, for the purpose of the article I focused on players who have been playing in the Korean WCS Premier League as they provide multiple consecutive sets against evenly(relative to other tournaments) matched opponents. From memory I would consider Hero an Athlete which still bucks the trend of most Protoss.
Olli
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Austria24422 Posts
September 20 2013 14:11 GMT
#47
On September 20 2013 22:40 Zvonimir wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2013 21:05 DarkLordOlli wrote:
Now here's the thing. Player example: LiquidHerO (of course.)



When considering Hero, I always look back to his multiple sets/games against Rain. Rain being the definitive Protoss Mastermind. There are multiple occasions of Hero being unable to exact damage from Rain, or of having achieved damage but failing to capitalise on the lead. Ultimately, for the purpose of the article I focused on players who have been playing in the Korean WCS Premier League as they provide multiple consecutive sets against evenly(relative to other tournaments) matched opponents. From memory I would consider Hero an Athlete which still bucks the trend of most Protoss.


Hm, weird. I'd actually switch it around. Rain excels at just being better mechanically than everybody else. That's why he doesn't take damage, that's why every engagement he takes usually ends up in his favor. But then you watch a game like the one he played vs Hyvaa in Proleague and he just completely fell apart in a chaotic situation. Like, the top players all seem to fit into more than one category it seems.
Administrator"Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."
JaKaTaKSc2
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States2787 Posts
September 20 2013 16:49 GMT
#48
Great read! I'd love to see more game analysis content out there in the context of Athlete, Architect, and Mastermind. 5 out of 5
Commentatorhttps://www.youtube.com/JaKaTaKtv
Derez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Netherlands6068 Posts
September 20 2013 17:21 GMT
#49
On September 20 2013 22:40 Zvonimir wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2013 21:05 DarkLordOlli wrote:
Now here's the thing. Player example: LiquidHerO (of course.)



When considering Hero, I always look back to his multiple sets/games against Rain. Rain being the definitive Protoss Mastermind. There are multiple occasions of Hero being unable to exact damage from Rain, or of having achieved damage but failing to capitalise on the lead. Ultimately, for the purpose of the article I focused on players who have been playing in the Korean WCS Premier League as they provide multiple consecutive sets against evenly(relative to other tournaments) matched opponents. From memory I would consider Hero an Athlete which still bucks the trend of most Protoss.

You just claim Rain is the definitive protoss mastermind without any method of getting to that conclusion. You're just working based on your intuition, which can be helpful but can't replace methods if you want to apply an approach like this.
danl9rm
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States3111 Posts
September 20 2013 17:30 GMT
#50
According to your graph, I can only begin preparing myself for "Pyramid Zerg" aka Jaedong, and his inevitable rise to the top.
"Science has so well established that the preborn baby in the womb is a living human being that most pro-choice activists have conceded the point. ..since the abortion proponents have lost the science argument, they are now advocating an existential one."
c0sm0naut
Profile Joined April 2011
United States1229 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-09-20 18:20:25
September 20 2013 18:20 GMT
#51
i think players have characteristics from each type and you cannot really call a player more of one of the other. every game requires thinking from each of these aspects. for example: You rate SK and innovation as different in that SK is a mastermind yet innovation is a powerhouse mechanical player. I feel that this ignores two elements, one, that atm the dominating strategy in TvX is a mechanics/multitasking centered one using mostly low tier units in high ## with good control, and that SK has some of the best mechanics as a Z player. All of these categories are fused with each other and can't really be separate. in TvP for example, having a rigid, always-do-it, medivac push timing in the matchup generally will net you more wins than not having push timing, simply because to play a macro game in this matchup means you / your opponent have a mutual understanding that he (P) is the one who will need to be punished, or he (P) will get out of control. Innovation is not going to play a code s tvp where he does not push with bio before the 12 minute mark, that's just how things are in this matchup. You can have the godliest mechanics in the world but not having a rigid plan for this matchup (or hell, tvt,tvz as well) will cause you to constantly die to all ins or be unable to punish greedy. A player with great mechanics but who plays with no elements of a mastermind will be unable to judge how many bunkers he can afford to make against a pressure, how serious the pressure is/how committed his opponent is, and decisions after. Just an average game against a decent opponent requires a huge understanding of each of these things, players that only have elements of a certain type will never have success imo.
jtp118
Profile Joined November 2010
United States137 Posts
September 20 2013 20:21 GMT
#52
way too simplistic and not useful at all as a heuristic, sorry
Randomaccount#77123
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States5003 Posts
September 20 2013 21:24 GMT
#53
--- Nuked ---
painkilla
Profile Joined June 2013
United States695 Posts
September 20 2013 21:43 GMT
#54
Any good player have elements of all three styles but it doesn't mean the article isn't useful. We think of Innovation as having perfect execution rather than mind games even though he has both. We can classify the players according to their most defining characteristics. But the OP lacks examples, analysis and and the categories aren't well defined.
Supernova | TY | Polt | Innovation | forGG | Lucifron | Happy
Zvonimir
Profile Joined September 2013
Australia22 Posts
September 21 2013 02:11 GMT
#55
On September 20 2013 23:11 DarkLordOlli wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 20 2013 22:40 Zvonimir wrote:
On September 20 2013 21:05 DarkLordOlli wrote:
Now here's the thing. Player example: LiquidHerO (of course.)



When considering Hero, I always look back to his multiple sets/games against Rain. Rain being the definitive Protoss Mastermind. There are multiple occasions of Hero being unable to exact damage from Rain, or of having achieved damage but failing to capitalise on the lead. Ultimately, for the purpose of the article I focused on players who have been playing in the Korean WCS Premier League as they provide multiple consecutive sets against evenly(relative to other tournaments) matched opponents. From memory I would consider Hero an Athlete which still bucks the trend of most Protoss.


Hm, weird. I'd actually switch it around. Rain excels at just being better mechanically than everybody else. That's why he doesn't take damage, that's why every engagement he takes usually ends up in his favor. But then you watch a game like the one he played vs Hyvaa in Proleague and he just completely fell apart in a chaotic situation. Like, the top players all seem to fit into more than one category it seems.


But the trick is he usually doesn't use his mechanics to be aggressive, he uses them to be safe and then counter attacks with low cost units when the opponent is vulnerable. He focuses on not losing the game before trying to take an advantage. More than one occasion Rain has fallen apart in situations, but I believe it happens mostly when he doesn't have a bearing on the situation (a concept of what his opponent has/is capable of). A good example of an error is in the OSL finals against Maru on Star Station, I believe he was unsettled as Maru played a defensive rather than aggressive game on a map widely believed to be easily abused by drops. When he pushed out he encountered an entrenched Maru, the resulting engagement directly lead to his loss.
Zvonimir
Profile Joined September 2013
Australia22 Posts
September 21 2013 02:26 GMT
#56
On September 21 2013 06:43 painkilla wrote:
Any good player have elements of all three styles but it doesn't mean the article isn't useful. We think of Innovation as having perfect execution rather than mind games even though he has both. We can classify the players according to their most defining characteristics. But the OP lacks examples, analysis and and the categories aren't well defined.


You are correct, more examples would be useful, however there were time factors (I spent an evening writing notes on each game, then another writing it and another reviewing) and I believed if I had made the article too long it would not gain traction. When discussing it with x5.PiG and a few other that had read the article before I made the post, I found that they could define the categories quite clearly to me and that assured me that I had conveyed my concepts appropriately.

However, seeing a few disgruntled posts here I may go back and make a chart or dot points to clearly identify characteristics. I am confident in my selection of players to styles but to make it evident it may require an entire series of articles reviewing their play across sets and seasons.
Fibbz
Profile Joined January 2011
Germany62 Posts
September 21 2013 14:10 GMT
#57
Thanks for the writeup, great job imo.
tomastaz
Profile Joined January 2013
United States976 Posts
October 06 2013 19:02 GMT
#58
Nice post. Interesting to see the different categories.
No church in the wild --- @tzhang0126
Prev 1 2 3 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 19m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft321
ViBE72
CosmosSc2 16
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 11735
Artosis 294
Mini 102
ZZZero.O 70
NaDa 39
actioN 39
Sexy 27
Hm[arnc] 20
Dota 2
syndereN366
monkeys_forever177
capcasts96
canceldota46
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0248
Liquid`Ken17
Other Games
summit1g5526
tarik_tv3965
FrodaN2035
JimRising 490
shahzam461
ToD202
Maynarde36
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta20
• Reevou 9
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV726
League of Legends
• Doublelift3182
Other Games
• imaqtpie1099
• Scarra867
• Shiphtur86
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
1h 19m
The PondCast
11h 19m
OSC
1d 1h
RSL Revival
1d 11h
TriGGeR vs Cure
ByuN vs Rogue
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Maru vs MaxPax
BSL
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
BSL
3 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-31
WardiTV Winter 2026
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
CSL Elite League 2026
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 1
ASL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 4
Nations Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

CSL Season 20: Qualifier 2
Escore Tournament S2: W1
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.