EPTForeword:
Making a list like this was always problematic. With nearly 5 years of gameplay there is a huge amount of information to parse. First, there is prestige of a tournament, measuring and making judgements on the GSL as compared to international LANS, tournament formats, and paths taken to the Championships. Next, the player’s level relative to the time must be considered with several caveats: the increased talent pool in modern times, the mass migration of KeSPA pros, and then the mass retirement of former KeSPA players and ESF players. Consistency over a long period of time as compared to peak/clutch has often been considered one of the most important measures, but their effect on the game itself is equally important. We must consider the innovation and creativity they used to make strategies as well as the refinement of pre-existing strategies, the meta in which they played and the outside factors they had to face during their reigns.
Another thing to keep in mind is the tiering of tournaments. A basic guideline is Blizzcons(Only 2013+) > GSL > OSL/SSL/Kespa Cup/WCS (2012 KR)/WCG KR/Blizzcon 2011 > International Tournaments. Blizzcon is at the highest because after 2013 it became the end all for the year, increasing the amount of pressure to win it. GSL is next as it has had the best format since Jan 2011, has the most preparation per round and has the best competition. The format and amount of players is what puts it slightly above the other Korean LANs like OSL, SSL, KeSPA/Hot6ix Cup, WCS KR 2012 and WCG KR. International tournaments are roughly below them, though depending on the player pool it can go all the way up being very close to GSL levels of prestige if many top players attended the event.
It is inevitable that many will argue for or against the inclusion or exclusion of certain players in the overall top 15 depending on what criteria you’ve used to judge their placing. However, as there is no definitive list to argue for or against, this is my attempt to codify a list of the all time greats as of this very moment.
You can read part 1 here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/482762-greatest-players-of-all-time-part-1
You can read part 2 here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/483325-greatest-players-of-all-time-part-2
You can read more about my criteria here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/482944-the-process-of-creating-the-top-15-greatest-list
#5 | Polt, The Professor
Achievements:
Tier 1:
GSL Super Tournament - 1st
GSL August 2011 - Top 4
NASL Season 4 2012 - 3rd
IPL 5 - 3rd
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - 1st
WCS NA Season 3 2013 - 1st
IEM Cologne 2014 - 2nd
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Top 4
WCS 2015 - 1st
Tier 2:
MLG Spring Championship 2013 - 1st
MLG Anaheim 2014 - 2nd
Red Bull Washington - 3rd
Tier 3:
Asus ROG Winter 2012 - 1st
DH Stockholm 2012 - 2nd
Red Bull Atlanta - 2nd
Red Bull Detroit - 1st
Greatest Series Played:
Polt vs MC - GSL Open Season 1
Set 1 | Set 2
Polt vs Ryung - GSL Season 3 Up and Downs 2012
Set 1
Polt vs Taeja - ASUS ROG 2012
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Stephano - ASUS ROG Winter 2012 Finals
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 part 1 | Set 5 part 2
Polt vs Stephano - Lone Star Clash Semi Finals
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Stephano - Lone Star Clash Finals
Sets 1-4
Polt vs Stephano - MLG Winter Championship 2012
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Stephano - MLG Spring Championship 2012
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Classic - IEM Cologne Quarter Finals 2014
Part 1 | Part 2
Polt vs Rain - IEM Cologne Semi Finals 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
Polt vs HerO - IEM Cologne Finals 2014
Part 1 | Part 2
Polt vs Byul - WCS NA Season 3 Finals 2014
Set 1 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
Polt vs Sage - WCS NA Season 3 2013
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Taeja - WCS NA Season 2 2013
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Polt vs Hyun - Hyun Spring Championship Finals 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
Polt vs Bomber - WCS NA Season 3 Semi Finals 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
Polt vs Hydra - WCS Finals 2015
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” - Sun Tzu, Art of War
For my money there is no one in SC2 who understands himself more than Polt. And there is no player who truly understands the skill difference between himself and his opponents. Polt has never lied, neither to himself or his opponents. Initially this got him a lot of hate from the community as he commented correctly that Jinro was bound to fall out of the top echelon of Code S players as he just wasn’t up to snuff. It was why he was able to dissect and kill the combination of MMA and Ryu Won. It is why among all terrans he has always been one of the few that have gotten even stronger during bad metas for terran in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Many people talk about the GomTvT era with a sense of derision. Yet from that era came some of the greatest terrans to have ever played the game. Players like Mvp, MMA, Bomber and Polt. And all of them have one unique aspect to them that have made them stand apart from the cookie cutter INnoVation imitations of the new era. It is that they were all forced into a new game. Each of them were forced to take this new game and find their own solutions. You get a very strong sense of what they think and who they are. You can see their very personalities in the way they play and the vision of victory they want to implement when they play.
For Polt that vision of victory is one he has implemented both inside and outside the game. It is a vision of balance. Polt does not want to be an average gamer, but he won't sacrifice everything to become the greatest of all time either. Instead he wants be successful, to find a way to secure his own life without having to bet it all on a shaky esports career. That is why during 2011-2012, despite being one of the best terrans in the world, he still continued his studies at Seoul University. It is how Polt was able to both study in America while competing for to be one of the best players in 2013.
Perhaps that is why he is such an incredibly charismatic figure in SC2. In an industry where it is the norm to risk your studies, your jobs, your lives, Polt shows that not only is it possible to balance those things with competitive gaming, but he also showed you can exceed at both. Even his role in the career is one of balance. He spent his first half of his career in Korea as the villain. Another faceless terran that insulted the foreign favorite Jinro. Yet once he moved abroad, he learned English, became Stephano’s greatest rival and with the force of his personality and gameplay, became one of the darlings of SC2. Even in his latest outing in WCS Season 1 2015, he eliminated local hero after local hero (including a French native in FireCake, a french emigre in ForGG, and Bunny the last foreigner), yet game after game, interview after interview he won the hearts of the audience and fans around the world.
Play Style:
On this list, Polt is close to if not the least talented player in terms of mechanics. In terms of sheer APM he was often dwarfed by his peers in any era. Here is an interesting stat. We measured the APM of Mvp, MMA, MKP and Polt in their primes. They were 370, 360, 360 and 260 respectively. Their EPM (which is effective APM that filters out that spamming) had all of them around the 160-170 mark. Polt may have had the least amount of APM, but he made it count more than any of his peers. And that differential has only increased in size the longer he has stayed in the game.Yet Polt is one of the few players to have won a Premier Tournament in every year of SC2. And it was not by chance.
Earlier I talked about how Polt approached the game with incredible intellect. What I meant was that Polt understands his weak points and he understands his strong points. He knows that his APM is lower so he must use it more efficiently. He must find a way to make his APM do more work than his opponents. So what he does is he solves matchups. He looked at TvT and came up with an aggressive style of bio tank that allowed him to break siege tank lines with aggressive marine splits that minimized damage, gave him a better concave and let him take awkward fights.
There was an old triangle back in 2011. It was MMA > Mvp > Polt > MMA . It was very much in line with how their styles mesh. Mvp combined solid mechanics with great defensive play, meaning he never allowed Polt to dictate engagements in positions favorable to Polt. MMA always beat Mvp because he had close to similar mechanics, but was much more adept at creating flowing harassment or clever all-ins that disrupted Mvp’s defense. This allowed MMA to get further ahead or win the game. On the other hand, Polt always beat MMA because he never allowed MMA to dictate the terms of the match because Polt was the one on the offensive. Polt’s style broke through MMA’s harassment style because of Polt’s superior positional awareness. If this was Rock Paper Scissors, Polt was the Rock, MMA was the Scissors and Mvp was Paper.
In fact Polt’s tactical and positional thinking is some of the best ever seen in SC2. Fionn had an interesting stat: in 2012 TvTs, Polt never lost a bio-tank vs bio-tank battle except against Ryung (a player who has won some of the hardest positional games ever played in the history of SC2) and Taeja. Not only did Polt solve TvT to emphasize his strengths, he did it for TvZ and TvP as well.
If there was a match that best informed about Polt’s methodology towards TvZ it was Polt vs Stephano. Both were two of the most intelligent players to have ever played SC2. Neither had the mechanics of their peers, yet both found new ways to play the game that changed the battlefield to one that favored their strengths. So inevitably they both ended up having some of the greatest games ever played. Polt gave up on the typical terran response of using drop harass to thin out the zerg army and using mechanics to win the war of cost efficiency and instead bet it all on one gigantic push where his APM became a smaller factor and his positioning became more important. In many ways Stephano mirrored that style (who could ever forget the Stephano roach max), leading the two players to engage in large confrontations, then into economic warfare, and finally into small scrappy fights that went down to the last unit.
The final matchup that really shows Polt’s intelligence is his TvP, specifically his TvP during the blink era. Back then every terran in Korea except Maru could not win a bo3+ against a protoss. Maru could only do it because his micro and control could not be overwhelmed in a battle of mechanics. For a player like Polt, that style was impossible. Instead he chose the seemingly absurd route and counterattacked. The crux of what made the Blink Era so strong for protoss was terran knew what they were going to do, but there was no way to punish it, no way to get ahead and no way to kill it. All you could do was defend it on maps that allowed near 270 different angles to blink in from. This meant that terran went down a specific path which allowed protoss to open up however they wanted without fear of reprisal. The Blink All-in either killed the terran, put protoss far ahead that they inevitably won the army clash or at worst put them even. Even when the Blink All-in “failed”, protoss could always play the mindgame of pretending to transition and then attacking with an even stronger All-in. So while every other terran (besides Taeja and Maru) was either dying or losing holed up in his base, Polt came up with his own solution.
If you cannot win a straight up fight, then don’t try to win a straight up fight. He created the counter attack style and in his famous run at IEM Cologne, he beat two of the best Koreans in PvT. And he did it in a hugely imbalanced matchup against superior mechanical players by refusing to engage. That is what makes Polt brilliant. These new age protoss were all just stronger than he was when it comes to the direct confrontation and pure mechanics. If he played the “standard” game he’d lose every time. That is why he had always counterattacked and that is why he has never pulled SCVs against protoss. It is just playing into the hands of his opponents' strengths. Instead, he forces the game into a game of tactical and positional prowess. He concedes that his opponent will always have a better army, better tech, better economy, but Polt has created his own pathway to survival, to victory.
Another aspect of Polt’s play is his creativity. Every once in a while, when he is allowed to prepare for a specific player in a specific matchup for a large amount of time he comes out with something insane. There are three big examples. The first was when he met MC in the GSL Open 1 and unveiled the 1-1-1. The second was his finals against MMA, where Polt had analyzed all of MMA’s TvTs and MMA's games at MLG to find his weakness and obliterate him at the GSL Super Tournament. The third time was his series against Classic at Blizzcon 2014 where he did the build of the century. He took an obscure mech v P build (one used by GuMiho once and not seen by any but the most hardcore of fans), tailored it into a 2 base all-in and completely shut down Classic in that one game.
Perhaps the most important piece to Polt’s gameplay is his composure or clutch factor. In 2013, there was a saying about Polt: “Once Polt gets behind in the game, he is certain to win.” This adage came about because Polt often found himself behind in economy, army supply and upgrades in WCS NA. Yet it only seemed to make him strong; Polt still won through superior use of tactical positioning and intelligence. The reasons for this is simple: the impact and importance of mechanics decreases as a game extends beyond the late game. Polt has created multiple series throughout his career that have seemed magical due to his ability to recover victory from the jaws of defeat.
Polt is able to stay calm in any series against any opponent, analyze the situation and find a way to make the series his. The best example of this was his most recent WCS 2015 run. In the playoffs he played against ForGG, Bunny and Hydra. Against ForGG, Polt was the underdog; Polt had lost his last two series against him (0-2 and 0-3). Yet Polt prevailed because he realized that ForGG was more afraid of him than the other way around. In his words he said, “ForGG’s best is mech. But ForGG went bio instead of mech in game 3. That means that ForGG thinks his best can’t beat me so he had to try something else.” Against Bunny, Polt was considered the slight favorite, but if you had looked at their recent series, Bunny had been leading 2-1, with the most recent encounter a 2-0 in Bunny’s favor. This time Polt went down 1-2 in the series. Yet Polt once more came back in the series and in his interview he said, “After losing the first few games, I learned how Bunny opened and learned that I could beat him in the late game. So I wasn’t worried, even though I was down overall.” In the finals against Hydra, Polt was again the underdog. Hydra had beaten him in their last two series, one of which was just the day before. Hydra even went up 3-1. But again Polt stayed composed and looked at his previous games and evaluated the mistakes he had made in the earlier games and realized there was a very real chance he could not only get to the late game, but beat Hydra there. So Polt stayed composed and created one of the best comebacks ever seen in a SC2 finals.
Difference between Polt and MMA
Separating Polt and MMA was, by far, the most difficult decision to make in the entire list. It forced me to drag out everything the two players had done in their entire careers. Every tournament they attended and the context of each, every opponent they faced and their relative strength at the time, every meta they played in and every adversity they faced was considered. I even considered the intangibles: MMA's indomitable spirit against personal and professional setbacks against Polt's enviable balance and intelligence in constantly solving matchups. Even the impact they had on the scene. In almost every way they were even.
Polt
Tier 1:
GSL Super Tournament - 1st - HuK, Alicia, TOP, MMA
GSL August 2011 - Top 4 - MMA, Keen, loss to TOP
NASL Season 4 2012 - 3rd - Huk, DRG, aLive, loss to HerO
IPL 5 - 3rd - YoDa, Creator, loss to Leenock, Sniper, Bomber, loss to viOLet
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - 1st - loss to Taeja, Alicia, Jim, Oz, Taeja, Jaedong
WCS NA Season 3 2013 - 1st - Revival, ByuL, Heart, Oz, ByuL
IEM Cologne 2014 - 2nd - StarDust, Classic, Rain, loss to HerO
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4 - Naniwa, Dear, loss to herO
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Top 4 - MacSed, Jaedong, Heart, HerO, loss to Bomber
Blizzcon 2013 - Top 8 - aLive, loss to sOs
MLG Spring Arena 2012 - Top 6 - DRG, Symbol, loss to Violet, loss to MC
IEM Sao Paulo - Top 8 - herO, loss to Jjakji
BlizzCup - Top 6 - Naniwa, Nestea, MMA, loss to Mvp
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Ro8 - loss to Hyun
DH Winter 2014 - Top 6 - MMA, Snute, loss to Jjakji, loss to Impact, loss to ForGG, loss to Taeja
WCS NA Season 1 2014 - Ro8 - Bomber, loss to Revival
DH Winter 2013 - Top 8 - loss to Life, loss to JYP, loss to MMA, StarDust, Hyun, HerO, loss to Patience
Blizzcon 2013 - Top 8 - aLive, loss to sOs
Tier 2:
MLG Spring Championship 2013 - 1st - Naniwa, Dear, Naniwa, HyuN
MLG Anaheim 2014 - 2nd - Scarlett, Stardust, viOLet, loss to Trap
Red Bull Washington - 3rd - loss to Cure, PartinG, Scarlett, loss to Bomber
IPL 4 - Top 8 - Squirtle, MC, Puma, loss to aLive, loss to MMA
MLG Spring Championship 2012 - Top 8 - No one noteworthy
MLG Spring Arena 2012 - Top 6 - DRG, Symbol, loss to viOLet, loss to MC
Tier 3:
ASUS ROG Winter 2012 - 1st - Taeja, HerO, Stephano
DH Stockholm 2012 - 2nd - Ret, loss to Thorzain
Red Bull Atlanta - 2nd - loss to Bomber
Red Bull Detroit - 1st - San, viOLet, Taeja
IEM Shanghai - Top 8 - Hyun, loss to Revival
IEM Sao Paulo - Top 8 - herO, loss to Jjakji
MMA
Tier 1:
GSL Blizzard Cup - 1st - Nestea, Leenock, Naniwa, Polt, Mvp, DRG
WCS EU Season 2 2013 - Top 4 - loss to Naniwa, loss to MC
WCS EU Season 3 2013 - 1st - duckdeok, Vortix, MC
IEM Bucharest 2013 - Top 4 - Snute, Flash, YugiOh, ForGG, loss to INnoVation
WCS EU Season 1 2014 - 2nd - loss to Welmu, loss to VortiX, Bunny, Mvp, Snute, San, loss to MC
WCS EU Season 3 2014 - 1st - YoDa, loss to Golden, ForGG, San, YoDa
Blizzcon 2014 - 2nd - StarDust, Bomber, Classic, loss to Life
GSL Season 1 2015 - Top 4 - Dark, INnoVation, TY, loss to PartinG
IPL 4 - Top 4 - loss to MKP, Polt, Stephano, loss to Squirtle
WCS Season 3 Finals - Ro8 - Jaedong, loss to Maru
DH Winter 2014 - Top 8 - Snute, loss to Polt, loss to Jjakji, Patience, loss to Jjakji
GSL November 2011 - Ro8 - MC, Nestea, Leenock (Bo1s), loss to Oz
GSL Season 1 2012 - Ro8 - GuMiho, Oz twice, loss to aLive
DH Winter 2013 - Top 6 - loss to Life, loss to JYP, Polt, StarDust, Patience, loss to Taeja, loss to Patience
GSL Global Championship - Seeded in but fell out - doesn’t count. (MMA)
Tier 2:
Iron Squid 1 - 1st - Jjakji, pre-Champion Life, loss to MaNa, aLive, Symbol
MLG Anaheim - 2nd - loss to Rain, Naniwa, DRG, Ganzi, Boxer, loss to Mvp
IPL 3 - Top 4 - Puma, loss to Lucky
DH Stockholm - Ro8 - Life, loss to ForGG
Tier 3:
MLG Columbus - 1st - July, Idra, Losira
IEM WC 2012 - 3rd - viOLet, loss to Puma
HSC IX - Ro8 - Taeja, loss to Scarlett
Tier 4:
IEM Keiv - 1st - Zenio, Dimaga
DH Moscow - 1st - loss to Jjakji, YoDa, Patience, Snute, Jjakji
That is right. I was forced to write down every Ro8 and then I compared them all. In the end the difference came down to this: MMA had more “prestige points”. WCS EU is about as prestigious as WCS NA. Blizzcon is much more prestigious than IEM Cologne 2014. Polt had harder competition in far worse metas (BL/infestor and the Blink Era). MMA had a higher peak in 2011 and has a higher peak now. It was an endless struggle back and forth but in the end I came to the final decision was Polt. The harder competition during his runs, the fact that WCS NA was more competitive than WCS EU and the metas in which he shined just barely, barely put him over MMA. *And most recently Polt's win in 2015 WCS tipped it more decisively in his favor.
For reference here is an entire checklist of how I balanced the scales:
GSL Super Tournament - 1st - HuK, Alicia, TOP, MMA
vs.
ST - 2nd - SuperNova, Ganzi, Ryung, MKP, loss to Polt
IEM Keiv - 1st - Zenio, Dimaga
GSL August 2011 - Top 4 - MMA, Keen, loss to TOP
DH Stockholm 2012 - 2nd - Ret, loss to Thorzain
vs.
WCS EU Season 1 2014 - 2nd loss to Welmu, loss to VortiX, Bunny, Mvp, Snute, San, loss to MC
NASL Season 4 2012 - 3rd - HuK, DRG, aLive, loss to HerO
Red Bull Atlanta - 2nd - loss to Bomber
BlizzCup - Top 6 - Naniwa, Nestea, MMA, loss to Mvp
vs.
WCS EU Season 3 2013 - 1st - duckdeok, VortiX, MC
IPL 3 - Top 4 - Puma, loss to Lucky
IPL 5 - 3rd - YoDa, Creator, loss to Leenock, Sniper, Bomber, loss to viOLet
vs.
GSL 2011 October - 1st - loss to Nestea, Happy, Mvp (Finals higher prestige)
Iron Squid 1 - 1st - Jjakji, pre-Champion Life, loss to MaNa, aLive, Symbol
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - 1st - loss to Taeja, Alicia, Jim, Oz, Taeja, Jaedong
vs.
WCS EU Season 3 2014 - 1st - YoDa, loss to Golden, ForGG, San, Yoda
IEM WC 2012 - 3rd - viOLet, loss to Puma
WCS NA Season 3 2013 - 1st - Revival, ByuL, Heart, Oz, ByuL
Red Bull Detroit - 1st - San, viOLet, Taeja
vs.
GSL Blizzard Cup - 1st - Nestea, Leenock, Naniwa, Polt, Mvp, DRG
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Top 4 - MacSed, Jaedong, Heart, HerO, loss to Bomber
vs.
IEM Bucharest 2013 - Top 4 - Snute, Flash, YugiOh, ForGG, loss to INnoVation
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4 - Naniwa, Dear, loss to herO
IEM Cologne 2014 - 2nd - StarDust, Classic, Rain, loss to HerO
vs
Blizzcon 2014 - 2nd - StarDust, Bomber, Classic, loss to Life
MLG Anaheim 2014 - 2nd - Scarlett, Stardust, viOLet, loss to Trap
Red Bull Washington - 3rd - loss to Cure, PartinG, Scarlett, loss to Bomber
vs
GSL Season 1 2015 - Top 4 - Dark, INnoVation, TY, loss to PartinG
WCS EU Season 2 2013 - Top 4 - loss to Naniwa, loss to MC
MLG Spring Championship 2013 - 1st - Naniwa, Dear, Naniwa, HyuN
vs.
MLG Columbus - 1st - July, Idra, Losira
HSC IX - Ro8- Taeja, loss to Scarlett
DH Stockholm - Ro8 - Life, loss to ForGG
ASUS ROG Winter 2012 - 1st - Taeja, HerO, Stephano
vs
DH Moscow - 1st - loss to Jjakji, YoDa, Patience, Snute, Jjakji
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Ro8 - loss to Hyun
vs
WCS EU Season 3 Finals - Ro8 - Jaedong, loss to Maru
IPL 4 - Top 8 - Squirtle, MC, Puma, loss to aLive, loss to MMA
IEM Shanghai - Top 8 - HyuN, loss to Revival
vs
IPL 4 - Top 4 - loss to MKP, Polt, Stephano, loss to Squirtle
DH Winter 2014 - Top 6 - MMA, Snute, loss to Jjakji, loss to Impact, loss to ForGG, loss to Taeja
MLG Spring Championship 2012 - Top 8 - No one noteworthy
vs
MLG Anaheim - 2nd - loss to Rain, Naniwa, DRG, Ganzi, Boxer, loss to Mvp
WCS NA Season 1 2014 - Ro8 - Bomber, loss to Revival
vs
DH Winter 2014 - Top 8 - Snute, loss to Polt, loss to Jjakji, Patience, loss to Jjakji
DH Winter 2013 - Top 8 - loss to Life, loss to JYP, loss to MMA, StarDust, HyuN, HerO, loss to Patience
vs
GSL November 2011 - Ro8 - MC, Nestea, Leenock (Bo1s), loss to Oz
GSL Season 1 2012 - Ro8 - GuMiho, Oz twice, loss to aLive
DH Winter 2013 - Top 6 - loss to Life, loss to JYP, Polt, StarDust, Patience, loss to Taeja, loss to Patience
vs
Blizzcon 2013 - Top 8 - aLive, loss to sOs
MLG Spring Arena 2012 - Top 6 - DRG, Symbol, loss to viOLet, loss to MC
IEM Sao Paulo - Top 8 - herO, loss to Jjakji
Polt's WCS 2015 was left over.
#4 | MC, The Exemplar
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/GSL3/1292673491_1.jpg)
Achievements:
Tier 1:
GSL Open 3 - 1st
GSL March 2011 - 1st
GSL WC - Top 4
GSL Season 3 2012 - 2nd
OSL - 3rd
MLG Winter Championship 2013 - 4th
WCS EU Season 2 2013 - 2nd
WCS EU Season 3 2013 - 2nd
WCS EU Season 1 2014 - 1st
Tier 2:
NASL 1 - 2nd
MLG Orlando - 2nd
MLG Spring Arena 2 - 4th
Red Bull Austin - 1st
HSC IX - 2nd
Tier 3:
MLG Columbus - 3rd
IEM WC 2012 - 1st
NASL 3 - 3rd
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - 2nd
IEM Shanghai - 4th
RB NY - 4th
DH Valencia - 2nd
Tier 4:
HSC IV - 1st
IEM Cologne - 2nd
IEM Sao Paulo - 2nd
Greatest Series Played:
MC vs Puma - NASL 1 Finals
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7
MC vs Puma - IEM WC Finals
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
MC vs Jaedong - WCS Season 2 Finals Group A
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
MC vs Stephano - Red Bull Austin
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
MC vs Taeja - Homestory Cup X Ro16
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
MC vs Flash - IEM Toronto Ro16
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
MC vs Grubby - IEM Singapore 2012
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
There are a multitude of things you can say about MC. He has the longest streak of consistency of any player in the world. He has never fallen out of the top tier of SC2 competition. He is the most traveled player of any SC2 player in the world. He has the most prize money earned of any SC2 gamer. He has played on a KeSPA team, an ESF team, and was one of the first to be on a solo sponsorship. He moved to Europe and created his own team house, then moved back to Korea. Many of the greatest ceremonies in SC2 were done by MC. He was one of the first Koreans to speak English and reach out to the foreign community. Even looking at his championships, he’s won 2 GSLs, multiple foreign tournaments and WCS EUs. There is nothing lacking in MC’s career. One time he even caught a thief with his bare hands.
After looking at all of those things as a whole I've come to understand one thing about MC. One thing that separates MC from the rest of the 14 greatest players of all time beyond his consistency. It is that MC understands the roles and responsibilities of what it means to be an icon, what it means to be a Champion, what it means to represent an entire scene. Unlike Polt, he never found balance in his life. Once MC went into SC2, he went all-in.
He flew everywhere, attended everything, competed against the best and won and lost. And through all of that thick and thin, he has always, always, always understood his role as an entertainer, his role in the community and his responsibility to his fans. It is that weight that may be what separates MC from all other players. And that is what makes MC the ideal Champion and that is what has made him one of the most beloved.
Play Style:
MC was the first player to understand the strength of the warp gate mechanic and the forcefield. He understood just how strong it was to be able to dictate the pace of every single battle and how to constantly maximize his attacks. Couple that with his incredible sense of mind games, his very strong control and his adaptability in every meta to pick up and learn new builds and create his own and you start to understand why MC has been around for so long when others have fallen off.
Perhaps the scariest thing about MC is that he ties it all together with macro builds. He rarely does them, but when he does you start to understand why so many players are caught off guard and play greedy against him. It is because his macro play is stellar. He doesn't have the pure refinement of strategy or control like Zest or Parting, but he has arguably some of the best on the fly thinking of any protoss player out there and it’s why some of the best MC games are him being outmatched and having to make a comeback. Because it showcases his incredibly creative reactions to solving problems, similar in many ways to Polt. It is a very unappreciated facet of his game as he has been pigeonholed as the master of all-ins for much of his career, when he has consistently proven that he can win anytime, anywhere.
Difference between MC and Polt
![[image loading]](http://img0-arch.pconline.com.cn/pcgames/1208/22/2615876_3.jpg)
This one was thankfully not nearly as close as Polt vs MMA so I did not need to rely so much on extraneous x factors that aren't quantifiable. The first thing that should stick out to you is that Polt had 2.5 years of consistency. During those times he peaked for about an 1.5 years as a Top 3 terran (half a year during BL/infestor, latter half of 2013 to first half of 2014). MC has been a top 10 protoss for the entirety of SC2. That’s 4.5 years. In the first 2 years he was #1 protoss until he was arguably unseated by Seed. He spend the rest of WoL around the Top 7, shot back up to Top 5 briefly around the beginning of HotS and has generally been around Top 10 protoss ever since. In pure consistency alone he wins against every other player on this list. However there are the peaks and the paths to consider, so here it is.
MC
Tier 1:
GSL Open 3 - 1st - July, MKP, Jinro, TSL_Rain
GSL March 2011 - 1st - July, San, July (bad format)
GSL WC - Top 4 - Anypro, loss to MKP
GSL Season 3 2012 - 2nd - MKP, Squirtle, Taeja, DRG, loss to Seed
OSL - 3rd - Flying, loss to DRG, Last
MLG Winter Championship 2013 - 4th - herO, Mvp, Bomber, loss to Life, loss to INnoVation
WCS EU Season 2 2013 - 2nd - MMA, loss to duckdeok
WCS EU Season 3 2013 - 2nd - Genius, loss to MMA
WCS EU Season 1 2014 - 1st - Naniwa, Stardust, jjakji, MMA
Tier 2:
NASL 1 - 2nd - Boxer, Sen, loss to Puma
MLG Orlando - 2nd - HerO, Puma, MKP, Idra, TheSTC
MLG Spring Arena 2 - 4th - MMA, Ganzi, loss to Stephano, DRG, Polt, loss to Symbol
Red Bull Austin - 1st - Huk, Stephano, Bomber
HSC IX - 2nd - jjakji, Dayshi, loss to Taeja
Tier 3:
MLG Columbus - loss to Idra, Thorzain, Moon, Naniwa, Idra, loss to Losira
IEM WC 2012 - viOLet, Puma
NASL 3 - 3rd - Puma, loss to Stephano, Ret
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - loss to Taeja
IEM Shanghai - 4th - Jaedong, aLive, loss to Revival
RB NY - 4th - Snute, HyuN, loss to PartinG, loss to Scarlett
DH Valencia - 2nd - Bomber, VortiX, Leenock, loss to Sacsri
Tier 4:
HSC IV - 1st - loss to MKP, JYP, Sound
IEM Cologne - 2nd - loss to Puma
IEM Sao Paulo - 2nd - jjakji, loss to herO
Polt
Tier 1:
GSL Super Tournament - 1st - HuK, Alicia, TOP, MMA
GSL August 2011 - Top 4 - MMA, Keen, loss to TOP
NASL Season 4 2012 - 3rd - Huk, DRG, aLive, loss to HerO
IPL 5 - 3rd - YoDa, Creator, loss to Leenock, Sniper, Bomber, loss to viOLet
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - 1st - loss to Taeja, Alicia, Jim, Oz, Taeja, Jaedong
WCS NA Season 3 2013 - 1st - Revival, ByuL, Heart, Oz, ByuL
IEM Cologne 2014 - 2nd - StarDust, Classic, Rain, loss to HerO
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4 - Naniwa, Dear, loss to herO
WCS NA Season 2 2014 - Top 4 - MacSed, Jaedong, Heart, HerO, loss to Bomber
Tier 2:
MLG Spring Championship 2013 - 1st - Naniwa, Dear, Naniwa, HyuN
MLG Anaheim 2014 - 2nd - Scarlett, Stardust, viOLet, loss to Trap
Red Bull Washington - 3rd - loss to Cure, PartinG, Scarlett, loss to Bomber
Tier 3:
ASUS ROG Winter 2012 - 1st - Taeja, HerO, Stephano
DH Stockholm 2012 - 2nd - Ret, loss to Thorzain
Red Bull Atlanta - 2nd - loss to Bomber
Red Bull Detroit - 1st - San, viOLet, Taeja
First off, their GSL Open Season 3 and Super Tournament wins were about the same. MC beat a Top 5 Z, Top 2 T, Top 3 T and Top 5 T. Polt beat a Top 5 P, Top 10 P, Top 5 TvT and Top 2 T to win his Super Tournament.
Next is MC’s GSL March win where he beat a Top 3 Z (July was peaking at that time), a Top 2 P (this is the closest San ever got to becoming #1 P player) and July again. In terms of sheer difficulty though it was about the same as Polt’s NASL 4 2012 run where he beat Huk, DRG and aLive. But I also added Polt’s IEM WC run to counter the prestige of a GSL.
Now we compare two Top4s. In MC’s Top 4 at GSL WC, he only beat a Top 5 P. This was equivalent to Polt’s August 2011 Top 4 run, though you could argue Polt’s was better because of the formats.
Next is MC’s silver run where he beat Top 5 T, Top 3 P, Top 5 T, Top 3 Z and lost to the best protoss at the time. This was close to Polt’s run at IPL 5 where he beat a Top 10 T, Top 3 P, Top 1 Z, Top 4 T (Bomber was peaking and you could have even called him Top 3 T at that point in time). Considering Polt’s run was under BL/infestor while MC’s run was during a slightly protoss favored meta, in terms of difficulty I favor Polt. But to counter the prestige I also added Polt’s Stockholm 2012 run where he got 2nd (though he only beat 1 notable player before losing to Thorzain.)
Weighed evenly are MC's OSL and Polt's WCS NA S2 2014. In the OSL, MC beat Flying, lost to DRG and then beat Last. Flying and Last are hard to rate since they both retired soon afterwards and KeSPA players were split away into different qualifiers at the time. So I decided to make this equal to Polt’s WCS NA Season 2 2014 Top 4 run where he beat Jaedong, Heart and HerO.
Next is MC’s MLG Winter Championship. It was when protoss was weak to terran and he beat a Top 5 P, Top 3 T, Top 5 T. This is similar to Polt’s IEM Cologne 2nd run where he beat StarDust, Classic and Rain during the blink era. In terms of difficulty and placing, Polt’s was higher so I added in MC’s lackluster HSC IV victory where he only beat 2 Korean players of note (only JYP cracked Top 10).
Comparing WCS EU and AM is somewhat difficult. In MC’s WCS EU Season 2 run he beat MMA before losing to duckdeok. The rest wasn’t noteable so I compared it to Polt’s WCS NA Season 3 victory over a Top 10 Z, Top 5 Z (or close to it), Heart (again a player hard to rate), Oz (Top 10 P, he was peaking around this time) and ByuL again. To balance the difficulty and prestige I added in MC’s NASL runner up where he beat Boxer and Sen before losing to Puma.
MC’s WCS EU Season 1 2014 run was the equivalent of Polt’s WCS NA Seas 2 2013 run. MC beat the best Europe had to offer. Polt beat close to the best of NA’s competition. In terms of pure strength Polt’s was probably favored considering Taeja was a Top 3 T and Jaedong was a Top 2 Z.
MC’s EU Season 3 2013 run was okay. He beat Genius, but lost to MMA. If you add in prestige it’s about the same as Polt’s MLG Anaheim 2nd place as Polt beat more notable players to get 2nd.
Next is MC’s MLG Orlando run where he beat a Top 5 P, Top 5 T (Puma was only ever top 5 in foreign events), Top 5 again and a Top 10 T (This was one of TheSTC’s peaks). This was about the same in terms of difficulty as 3 of Polt’s Red Bull Runs: Washington, Atlanta and Detroit.
Now that we’ve come this far, look at Polt’s remaining achievements:
MLG Spring Championship 2013 - 1st - Naniwa, Dear (pre-godlike Dear), Naniwa, Hyun
Asus ROG Winter 2012 - 1st Taeja, HerO, Stephano
These are MCs:
HSC IX - 2nd - Jjakji, Dayshi, loss to Taeja
MLG Columbus - 3rd - loss to Idra, Thorzain, Moon, Naniwa, Idra, loss to Losira
IEM WC 2012 - 1st - viOLet, Puma
NASL 3 - 3rd - Puma, loss to Stephano, Ret
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - loss to Taeja
IEM Shanghai - 4th - Jaedong, aLive, loss to Revival
RB NY - 4th - Snute, Hyun, loss to Parting, loss to Scarlett
DH Valencia - 2nd - Bomber, VortiX, Leenock, loss to Sacsri
IEM Cologne - 2nd - loss to Puma
MLG Spring Arena 2 - 4th - MMA, Ganzi, loss to Stephano, DRG, Polt, loss to Symbol
IEM Sao Paulo - 2nd - jjakji, loss to herO
Red Bull Austin - 1st - Huk, Stephano, Bomber
Even if you thought some of the choices were Polt favored before, in the end MC has 12 more major tournament runs compared to Polt’s remaining 2. In sheer volume of work, MC is just shoulders above Polt. And we didn't even touch upon MC’s innovations to the protoss race and how those factor in for his overall greatness.
#3 | Taeja, Boy on the Mountain
Achievements:
Tier 1:
GSL Season 4 2012 - Top 4
GSL Season 1 2013 - Top 4
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - Top 4
WCS Season 2 Finals 2013 - Top 4
DH Bucharest 2013 - 1st
DH Winter 2013 - 1st
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4
IEM Shenzhen 2014 - 1st
IEM Toronto 2014 - Top 4
Blizzcon 2014 - Top 4
DH Winter 2014 - 3rd
Tier 2:
MLG Summer Arena 2012 - 1st
MLG Summer Championship 2012 - Top 4
DH Summer Open 2013 - Top 4
HSC VIII - 1st
HSC IX - 1st
DH Summer Open 2014 - 1st
HSC X - Top 4
Tier 3:
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - 1st
Dreamhack Open Winter 2012 - 2nd
HSC VII - 1st
ASUS ROG Summer 2013 - 1st
Red Bull Detroit - 2nd
DH Valencia 2012 - 1st
Greatest Series Played:
Taeja vs Life - DH Winter 2013
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6
Taeja vs Life - DH Winter 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
Taeja vs Life - Blizzcon Semi Finals
Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5
Taeja vs INnoVation - WCS Season 2 ro16 2013
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Taeja vs Nestea - IPTL Finals 2012
Part 1 | Part 2
Taeja vs Yonghwa - IPTL Finals 2012
Set 3
Taeja vs Yonghwa - IPTL Finals 2012
Set 6
Taeja vs Zest - IEM Toronto ro16 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Taeja vs MC - HSC X
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
Taeja vs soO - Blizzcon 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4
Taeja vs INnoVation Blizzcon 2014
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4
Taeja vs Rain - WCS Season 2 Ro8 2013
Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
"I don't fear losing, the only thing I fear is not trusting my instinct. I know Ryu is not a strong character, if I wanted to win I could pick another character. I express myself during fighting and with Ryu I can fully express myself." – Daigo Umehara
After his loss to Infiltration at EVO 2013
The expression of self has been a prevailing theme throughout humanity’s history. What is the self, what does it mean and what is the purest expression of self? For many of us it is what we do, why we do them and how we do it that defines much of what we are.
And that leads us to the conundrum of Taeja. What is Taeja? In my 2014 Blizzcon preview I noted that Taeja was a hard player to grasp. For the other players, there is a very real sense of struggle with their career paths, their attempts to stay at the top, to find a way to solve SC2 with the limited tools they have at their disposal.
Not so with Taeja. Back during the early 2012 era, Taeja was a mechanical monster. He had some of the most refined builds and could build up a massive army the likes of which resemble INnoVation and Cure today. Yet he too was struck with wrist problems like Mvp and just like Mvp, he dealt with it. Taeja completely revamped his style to be a defensive terran that could react to everything he saw, and with that information, make the right strategic decision every time.
It is especially astounding when you realize that this style is tested most in weekend tournaments, yet it was through those LANs that Taeja has risen to become one of the greatest players of all time. It seems impossible to even consider the idea that a player was able to make the right strategic decision in nearly every LAN he has participated in. In SC2 we often bandy about the term "throw" because we see a player get ahead only to make an unforgivable mistake that lets the other player capitalize and recover. This happens to even the best of players. Now ask yourself, when Taeja was in top form, did he ever throw a match? Did he ever get in a lead and throw away a match because of a mistake? I can’t think of any. I can think of matches he’s lost like Pigbaby, where he was completely thrown off and unable to read what Pigbaby was doing. I can think of matches where he was out positioned, out microed, out thought, but I cannot think of an example of when he threw a lead. What is Taeja?
Watching Taeja play someone is like watching someone challenge the ocean to a fist fight. Normal mortals get swallowed up and die. Only the truly divine players can match Taeja in his element, only the greatest have a shot of defeating a force of nature. Look at the list of Taeja’s greatest series. Every one of them has Taeja battling either a great of all time or a player in his prime. It is no mistake that only the greatest players can stare at Taeja’s strength and not flinch. Because Taeja watches you, looks at your play and reacts with the right answer and the right strategy and the right composition nearly every single time.
And that very essence of how he played could be seen in his out of game personality. Look at this list: Leenock, DRG, soO, MarineKing, INnoVation, Zest, Nestea, MMA, Polt and MC. You could tell that every single one of them wanted to win, every single one of them imposed the very essence of their identity into the game. Taeja? Most of the time, not even the casters and experts can analyze and dissect what actually allows Taeja to keep winning. He never did anything fancy: he just countered his opponents and made better decisions that compounded other better decisions. Outside the game, there were times when it looked like Taeja hardly cared that he had won. Most of the time he was wondering why he only kept winning 1st place prizes with $10,000 checks. When the Korean netizens criticized him and tried to goad him by saying he could never be a great player because he left Korea, Taeja just shrugged and said, "Yea." The only time, the only time I have ever seen Taeja actually show that he wanted to win a tournament was Blizzcon, where he wanted to make his brother proud.
Maybe that is why Taeja was Life’s greatest rival. Because Life is like a raging inferno. He consumes all in his path on his way to victory and Taeja is the exact opposite. A player of complete calm who stays on the defense and reacts to his opponent. Who finds out what they are doing and finds a perfect answer to beat them. That is what Taeja is like in his prime. And though he has essentially retired since Blizzcon (He has never participated in any international beyond IEM WC, which he had a seed for, I can’t help but think about the prediction I made in that 2014 preview.)
2) We will never see a defensive macro terran who wins games off of his consistent superior strategic decision-making like Taeja ever again.
What is Taeja?
He is a champion like no other in Starcraft. He is one of the greatest players to have ever played. He is the only one to have never been in a Korean LAN finals on this list. He is a player untouched by the pressures that come with the desire of becoming a champion, untouched the fear of failure. Taeja is a boy on the mountain. He is standing at the top and he sees all things with a clarity and vision that no other in SC2 has ever seen.
That is Taeja.
Playstyle:
![[image loading]](http://www.gosugamers.net/files/images/news/2013/november/taeja-wins-news.jpg)
Excerpt from 2014 Blizzcon Preview:
In a game as complex as SC2, thousands of decisions are made per game. It is impossible to make those split second decisions every time which is why players practice anywhere between 8-12 hours a day. And it is in practice where we learn what is optimal, what to do in any instant so that our play is as sharp as possible and we can focus mentally on other aspects of the game. Now imagine how many decisions have to be made per series. How many deviations you have to make per decision based on the player. How many series you play per tournament. How many times you have to come up with off the wall instant reactions to situations you have never seen before despite having played hundreds or thousands of hours previous.
It is in this arena, this chaos that Taeja thrives. Because at each juncture, at each moment, Taeja continues to make the right decisions and the right moves every time. It is that consistency, that intelligence that has made Taeja one of the greatest to have ever played. It is why when terrans are given a choice between playing like Taeja or playing like INnoVation, they all flock to INnoVation. INnoVation simplifies the equation. Here is the build order. You start attacking at this moment and never stop attacking. At this moment you pull the SCVs and you either win or lose. In order to play like Taeja, you have to to think constantly, unendingly, where do I scan, what do I scan, what do I build, when do I build it, how do I react to this composition, how do I defend, where do I move my units. Even one mistake, one bad decision will cost you the game.
Yet Taeja does this every time he plays in the booth, in every game, in every series. Against INnoVation, the greatest mechanical terran of that time, he turned the game into a massive complex game of economic and tactical chess and came out on top. Against Rain, a player known as a fortress of defense, he created an iron curtain that allowed Rain no chance to react, to counter Taeja's moves. Against Zest he turned small mistakes into landslide victories. Now imagine doing this against not just three of the best players in the world, but nearly all of them over almost 3 years with constantly shifting metas, maps, players, and styles. And that is what puts Taeja on a plane on his own. Taeja sees exactly one move ahead of nearly every game he's played. The right move. When you take all of that into account, you start to understand the enormity of Taeja's understanding, consistency, and strategic vision.
Difference between Taeja and MC:
This was a very interesting one. When I first made this list and used the eye test, Taeja was actually much further down the list (just above Zest). After all he has never won a preparation format like WCS or GSL. He’s had a few deep runs but a large amount of his work was done in the foreign scene. Then I added MC’s longer consistency of 4.5 years against Taeja’s 2.5 years. MC was the best protoss for 1.5 years earlier, but Taeja was the best terran for 1.5 years in HotS in a harder time. In terms of peak, I favor Taeja, but again there is that consistency, the prestige and the innovation. While I did something similar to ranking both Polt and Nestea over MMA, this is much more extreme than that. So how can I say that Taeja is better than MC, let alone someone like Polt or MMA?
First look at the list of achievements:
Taeja
Tier 1:
GSL Season 4 2012 - Top 4 - Mvp, loss to Rain, DRG, Polt, Leenock, loss to Life
GSL Season 1 2013 - Top 4 - loss to INnoVation, Bomber, DRG, Soulkey, loss to RorO
WCS NA Season 2 2013 - Top 4 - Polt, aLive, loss to Polt
WCS Season 2 Finals 2013 - Top 4 - INnoVation, duckdeok, Rain, loss to Bomber
DH Bucharest 2013 - 1st - YugiOh, sOs, Life, INnoVation
DH Winter 2013 - 1st - INnoVation, sOs, ForGG, HerO, MMA, Life, Life again
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4 - StarDust, Life, lost to sOs
IEM Shenzhen 2014 - 1st - MMA, Life, Zest, Jaedong, Solar
IEM Toronto 2014 - Top 4 - Zest, Bunny, viOLet, loss to Flash
Blizzcon 2014 - Top 4 - soO, INnoVation, loss to Life
DH Winter 2014 - 3rd - San, Bunny, loss to Leenock, loss to Life, San, Polt, Jjakji, loss to Life
Tier 2:
MLG Summer Arena 2012 - 1st - Ganzi, Losira, First, Alicia
MLG Summer Championship 2012 - Top 4 - Ryung, loss to Crank
DH Summer Open 2013 - Top 4 - GuMiho, loss to Jaedong
HSC VIII - 1st - Symbol, HerO, Symbol, HyuN
HSC IX - 1st - loss to Snute, Snute, Jaedong, Scarlett, MC
DH Summer Open 2014 - 1st - Patience, Jaedong, HerO
HSC X - Top 4 - YoDa, MC, Snute, loss to Flash
Tier 3:
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - 1st - HerO, ForGG, MC
Dreamhack Open Winter 2012 - 2nd - Stephano, Thorzain, Nerchio, loss to HerO
HSC VII - 1st - Stephano, TLO, Snute
ASUS ROG Summer 2013 - 1st - HyuN, Alicia, San
Red Bull Detroit - 2nd - StarDust, loss to Polt
DH Valencia 2012 - 1st - Grubby, Stephano, ForGG
MC
Tier 1:
GSL Open 3 - 1st - July, MKP, Jinro, TSL_Rain
GSL March 2011 - 1st - July, San, July (bad format)
GSL WC - Top 4 - Anypro, loss to MKP
GSL Season 3 2012 - 2nd - MKP, Squirtle, Taeja, DRG, loss to Seed
OSL - 3rd - Flying, loss to DRG, Last
MLG Winter Championship 2013 - 4th - herO, Mvp, Bomber, loss to Life, loss to INnoVation
WCS EU Season 2 2013 - 2nd - MMA, loss to duckdeok
WCS EU Season 3 2013 - 2nd - Genius, loss to MMA
WCS EU Season 1 2014 - 1st - Naniwa, Stardust, jjakji, MMA
Tier 2:
NASL 1 - 2nd - Boxer, Sen, loss to Puma
MLG Orlando - 2nd - HerO, Puma, MKP, Idra, TheSTC
MLG Spring Arena 2 - 4th - MMA, Ganzi, loss to Stephano, DRG, Polt, loss to Symbol
Red Bull Austin - 1st - Huk, Stephano, Bomber
HSC IX - 2nd - jjakji, Dayshi, loss to Taeja
Tier 3:
MLG Columbus - loss to Idra, Thorzain, Moon, Naniwa, Idra, loss to Losira
IEM WC 2012 - viOLet, Puma
NASL 3 - 3rd - Puma, loss to Stephano, Ret
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - loss to Taeja
IEM Shanghai - 4th - Jaedong, aLive, loss to Revival
RB NY - 4th - Snute, HyuN, loss to PartinG, loss to Scarlett
DH Valencia - 2nd - Bomber, VortiX, Leenock, loss to Sacsri
Tier 4:
HSC IV - 1st - loss to MKP, JYP, Sound
IEM Cologne - 2nd - loss to Puma
IEM Sao Paulo - 2nd - jjakji, loss to herO
This is where I started to balance things out. In GSL Open MC beat a Top 5 Z, Top 2 T, Top 3 T, Top 5 T. In Taeja’s 2013 GSL run he beat a Top 5 T, Top 5 Z, Top 1 Z. I then added in his Red Bull 2nd place to even out the prestige as in terms of difficulty Taeja’s run in 2013 was harder than MC’s run in 2010.
Next is MC’s March GSL win. He beat a Top 3 Z, Top 2 P, Top 3 Z. I compared this to Taeja’s Top 4 2012 run. He beat Top 1 T, Top 3 Z, Top 3 T, Top 2 Z. In sheer numbers MC again had the harder path. So I then added in Taeja’s ASUS Rog Summer to make up the difference in prestige (though Taeja’s opponent list now dwarf’s MC’s).
Now onto two tournaments with paltry opponents. In MC's GSL WC, he only beat one good player, a Top 5 P. This is similar to Taeja's WCS NA S2 where he beat only Polt and aLive.
After that is MC’s second place at GSL Season 3. He beat a Top 5 T, Top 3 P, Top 3 T, Top 2 Z and then lost. This is similar to Taeja’s Winter 2013 run. He beat the Top 2 T (Though some say INnoVation was better than Taeja at the time), Top 5 P, Top 10 T, Top 5 P, Top 10 T and a Top 4 Z twice. Given Taeja’s path of difficulty and his victory I felt this was fair.
Next is MC’s mediocre OSL run. Like I said before it’s hard to rate how good Flying and Last were but I just again overdid it on Taeja’s side and counted his Toronto Top 4 where he beat the best P and best player Zest.
Two Top 4 finishes even out: MC's MLG Winter and Taeja's WCS S2 Finals 2013. MC beat a Top 5 P, Top 3 T, Top 5 T. Taeja defeated Top 1 T, Top 5-10 P and Top 1-2 P. Again Taeja’s difficulty was harder.
Next I combined three of MC’s WCS EU runs. Look at them below; I decided that in terms of pure difficulty IEM Shenzhen was harder. There Teaja beat Top 5 T, Top 3 Z, the best player, Top 10 Z (And Jaedong plays better at lans), and Top 2 Z. In terms of sheer difficulty again Taeja wins, but to counter the prestige I added in Taeja’s DH Summer Open 2014 win.
They both had wins in small tournaments, and I equate MC's NASL 2nd place and Red Bull Austin with Taeja's MLG Summer 2012. Boxer was at best a top 5 T, Stephano was a Top 3 Z, Bomber was a top 5 T. However the format and prestige favor Taeja’s win over MC’s. But just for good measure I added in Taeja’s HSC 8.
Next is MC’s Orlando runner-up and Top 4 at Spring Arena. I equate this to Taeja’s Bucharest victory where he beat a Top 5 P, Top 3 Z and the Top 1 or 2 Terran. Taeja won on both prestige and difficulty.
You can keep going down the list as I’ve balanced it in that way, with the list being MC biased with Taeja having to equate it with harder paths (just as I did in the earlier balances). Here it is:
HSC IX - 2nd - jjakji, Dayshi, loss to Taeja
IEM WC 2012 - 2nd - viOLet, Puma
vs
HSC IX - 1st - loss to Snute, Snute, Jaedong, Scarlett, MC
MLG Columbus - 3rd - loss to Idra, Thorzain, Moon, Naniwa, Idra, loss to Losira
vs
ASUS ROG Summer 2013 - 1st - HyuN, Alicia, San
NASL 3 - 3rd - Puma, loss to Stephano, Ret
vs
Dreamhack Open Winter 2012 - 2nd - Stephano, Thorzain, Nerchio, loss to HerO
Do Blizzcon and IEM double top 4 runs outweigh the following 7 tournament runs? Yes. Those two runs were way more difficult and the prestige was through the roof compared to a bunch of these smaller tournaments. In both prestige and content, Taeja won.
ASUS ROG Summer 2012 - 2nd - loss to Taeja
IEM Shanghai - 4th - Jaedong, aLive, loss to Revival
RB NY - 4th - Snute, HyuN, loss to PartinG, loss to Scarlett
DH Valencia - 2nd - Bomber, VortiX, Leenock, loss to Sacsri
HSC IV - 1st - loss to MKP, JYP, Sound
IEM Cologne - 2nd - loss to Puma
IEM Sao Paulo - 2nd - jjakji, loss to herO
vs
IEM WC 2014 - Top 4 - StarDust, Life, lost to sOs
Blizzcon 2014 - Top 4 - soO, INnoVation, loss to Life
That then leaves this for Taeja:
Tier 1 events:
DH Winter 2014 - 3rd - San, Bunny, loss to Leenock, loss to Life, San, Polt, Jjakji, loss to Life
Tier 2:
MLG Summer Championship 2012 - Top 4 - Ryung, loss to Crank
DH Summer Open 2013 - Top 4 - Gumiho, loss to Jaedong
HSC X - Top 4 - YoDa, MC, Snute, loss to Flash
Tier 3:
HSC VII - 1st - Stephano, TLO, Snute
DH Valencia 2012 - 1st - Grubby, Stephano, ForGG
The list could be even larger if I hadn't balanced the runs so heavily in MC's favor. All of this just to ask you this one question: at what point does prestige outweigh difficulty and peak consistency and hard fought tournament runs? At what point does preparation format mean more than sheer number of victories against harder opponents? In my opinion with Taeja and MC we crossed the point long ago and we still ended up at 5 major tournament runs left for Taeja (and even more if I had exactly balanced out the scales instead of blatantly favoring MC).
There is a saying among the SC2 community called the Liquid Bias. It is the belief that the writers are inherently biased to Liquid players. Here is the truth: I have always tried to be biased against Taeja. I had put him below Zest in my first draft. But weight for weight, pound for pound, player for player, Taeja’s paths and achievements have constantly outshone things like prestige and preparation formats. My logic forced me kicking and screaming against this placing, but the hard facts remain. I spent tens of hours trying to find any excuse to put Taeja lower. I found none. Taeja’s volume of work is just too strong to ignore for arbitrary feelings like prestige. Now that I have thoroughly analyzed Taeja's entire career compared to the other greats of all time I finally understand what Coach Park meant when he said, “The hell kind of player was this?”
