Taeja, herO, Flash those are my bets for having the greatest likelihood of taking this tournament.

Zest is falling off, Cure showed it expertly in their code S group. Still Zest managed to squeeze through by taking out SK a second time. Still not promising for him.

sOs? He is the master of builds, he is superb when planning for a series like for example PL. He does however need a lot of bracket luck to get far in weekends tournaments, he is weaker with less planning. sOs and Taeja are opposites, this is Taejas field not sOs's

Dark horses: Polt, First and Jaedong.

First is greatly under appreciated, he is amazing, he will prove you all wrong. Jaedong usually shows sparks of brilliance after long periods of inactivity (tons of training), this feels like a time when the Jaedong monster will show its beautiful mug yet again. Polt is simply the master of strategy, he can take out anyone, any day. Wash your neck and wait.

Shellshock

United States97276 Posts

August 28 2014 12:04 GMT

#48

Taeja isn't high enough for me to complain about liquid bias

Lunareste

United States3596 Posts

August 28 2014 12:08 GMT

#49

fucking GREAT write up guys, love it

MtlGuitarist97

United States1539 Posts

August 28 2014 12:09 GMT

#50

Despite only being 1 rank higher than Jer, Bones is probably around 2x as good.

Wow, so bm

lichter

1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts

August 28 2014 12:22 GMT

#51

On August 28 2014 20:44 coL.hendralisk wrote:
*posts in the thread*

I expect to see more of this during the weekend

:p

SFDuality

United States1318 Posts

August 28 2014 12:23 GMT

#52

Taeja only seems to lose when he's favored, so him being #5 on this PR actually gives me hope that he'll win the tournament.

Unless he loses to Jer somehow.

sciserr

Norway16 Posts

August 28 2014 12:46 GMT

#53

Mandatory Snute-chant. Channel you inner beast and slaughter herO in open bracket!

Squat

Sweden7978 Posts

August 28 2014 12:49 GMT

#54

MC and Stardust a little high. Bunny is good, but I really think people are getting ahead of themselves on him. Hyun a bit too high also. I have no idea what Violet has done to merit being above Snute and Scar. Rest looks mostly good.

looknohands119

United States815 Posts

August 28 2014 12:49 GMT

#55

Lookin' good guys. I want moar! Power rank should be a basic thing done for every premier event.

Squat

Sweden7978 Posts

August 28 2014 12:52 GMT

#56

On August 28 2014 21:49 looknohands119 wrote:
Lookin' good guys. I want moar! Power rank should be a basic thing done for every premier event.

Takes a ton of time and effort, and is often very arbitrary because competition in Sc2 is so scattered. It was easier in BW because the scene was far more centralized.

KadaverBB

Germany25657 Posts

August 28 2014 12:59 GMT

#57

I am not joking jer, should you eliminate snute I will 100% ban you. The length of this ban will depend on my mood

FrostedMiniWheats

United States30730 Posts

August 28 2014 13:09 GMT

#58

On August 28 2014 17:38 fatalbino wrote:
I think Taeja should be first. He is by far one of the most consistent Starcraft II players in the world right now. Did you forget how recently Taeja 3-0'd Zest? He won the most recent IEM, Shenzhen, and came really close to winning the RedBull Detroit. I really think if you are going to rank someone it should be on recent results, not overall achievements.

I think it's the opposite. Taeja is at a disadvantage if you take recent results into account. Long term he's one of the most consistent players ever and definitely the best foreign tournament player of all-time. He's played some games in foreign events that give even the best gsl games a run for their money (His game vs Bogus on Newkirk for instance).

==

I can buy this ranking since it seems we're just talking about the best players on recent results and ofc more weight was given to those performing in Korea. Personally, I'd lean more favoring those who have proven themselves in foreign events in the past though, since that is the environment we find ourselves in. It should be very apparent by now that some people just don't do as well in different types of tournaments.

Zest for instance came into IEM Shenzen as probably the best player in the world, but his level of play was far from what you'd expect given that title. Especially against Taeja, he really made some embarrassing moves that series. I'm confidently calling that he doesn't even make it out of his group this IEM.

Taeja and herO are my top 2 picks to win this tournament. herO has already proven he's good in like any environment and Taeja is just Taeja the collector of 10k checks.

Boucot

France15997 Posts

August 28 2014 13:10 GMT

#59

I'm so excited for this tournament. It gathers some of the best KR Koreans, the best Koreigners and the best Foreigners. When was the last time that happened ?