#9 | herO

Achievements:
Tier 1:

• IEM WC 2014 - 2nd
  
• KeSPA Cup 2014 - 2nd
  
• GSL S1 2015 - Top 4
  
• SSL S2 2015 - Top 4
  
• KeSPA Cup S1 2015 - 1st
  
• SSL S3 2015 - 1st


Tier 2

• DH Stockholm 2014 - Top 4
  
• IEM San Jose 2014 - 1st


Tier 3

• IEM Singapore 2013 - 1st
  
• IEM Shenzhen 2015 - Top 4


Tier 4

• IEM Sao Paulo 2014 - 1st

If there was any rivalry that could describe the greatest aspects of herO’s play it would be his rivalry against Snute during the Swarmhost era. To understand the context of that era, Swarmhosts weren’t imbalanced, at least not in the way that BL/infestors were. It forced a completely different kind of a game and a completely different kind of mindset. However the games were slow and grinding and ones where the Zerg had to slowly chip away at the Protoss while the Protoss tried to outmaneuver and catch any weakness the Zerg had.

In this arena, Snute was unarguably the best at this strategy of anyone. And the first two times he met herO, herO got outplayed. They were fairly close games, but in the end it was clear, Snute was just better at the matchup than herO. The third time they played was at IEM San Jose. There Snute again won the first two games and herO finally made two crucial adjustments. He realized Snute had two weaknesses. Snute played too safe, so herO opted to go nexus first the following three games giving him a nice economic boost in the early game. And secondly he learned that against Snute at least, ground based armies were okay in the mid game and early-late game, but he had to transition to air if he wanted any hope of beating Snute. In three long grueling matches, he finally overcame his rival and defeated the best SwarmhostvP in the world.

herO’s two strongest attributes are that he is incredibly good at standard plays (particularly with blink stalkers) and that he learns how to adapt against playstyles and players the longer he goes up against them. The only two exceptions to this rule are Classic (who always beats him like a drum) and proxy 2 gate (which beats him even harder). Still one of mechanically strongest Protoss in an era where Protoss are the most numerous Champions.

Difference between herO and Polt:

herO had the consistency that Soulkey lacked. In addition to that he had way more results across all three years compared to Polt, especially in 2015. Fairly clean cut.

#8 | Rain

Achievements
Tier 1:

• OSL 2013 - 2nd
  
• Hot6ix Cup - 1st
  
• GSL Season 1 2014 - Top 4
  
• IEM Cologne - Top 4
  
• GSL S2 2015 - 1st
  
• SSL S3 2015 - Top 4


Tier 2:

• IEM San Jose - 2nd


Tier 3:

• HSC IX - 1st

Rain was the chosen one. The first truly great KeSPA player to prove his mettle against the old guard. More than that he was the Protoss messiah, the heir to MC, the player that had tamed the chaos that was PvP. Mechanically he was of the upper echelon. His understanding of the game was arguably the best of any Protoss (and one of the best Protoss of all time). He had great micro, great macro, a great sense of how every matchup played out and a vision of how every game should be played out and he executed it perfectly. If there was anyone everyone expected to win a GSL in 2012, it was Rain.

Especially because the opponent he met in the semi-finals was Mvp. A player whose worst matchup was TvP. Who had only won his last GSL series off of cheese, surprise gambits, strategy, mind-games and pure grit. A player whose injuries were horrendous for his career (He had Cervical Kyphosis which also caused his carpal tunnel. This meant he had severe pressure on his spine when playing which cause pain in his shoulders wrist and arms. In addition to that if he could sometimes not even lift his arms and he could no longer feel his hands when he played. It also caused his grip to weaken when playing, making it harder to control the mouse.) Rain was on a one way ticket to a GSL Finals and all he had to do was beat a man who had been playing with career ending injuries and who had said injuries for the entirety of 2012.

But Mvp did what Mvp did best. He dragged his ailing body across the finish line by out thinking Rain every step of the way. From start to finish he had accurately predicted exactly when and how Rain would react to each game in consecutive order of each other and won over the strongest Protoss in the world.

Rain wouldn’t understand the fundamental reason of his loss then and he wouldn’t for the next two years until he finally left SKT to join mYi. At that point in his career, Rain stopped believing in his own game. He never said as much (until his interview at BlizzCon in 2015), but it was clear. He no longer played the super safe 'get to the late game and win from there' style that he had from 2012 to the end of 2014. He would still go late game (especially vs Zergs), but he started to mix in all-ins and timings. More than that he started to mix them in specifically to counter what he had seen from his opponents in the past. He was no longer just playing the race, he was also playing the player. Rain in 2015 had finally learned the lessons Mvp had taught him back in 2012. That mechanics and theoretical understanding was not enough. That the game was just as much about playing the player as it was about playing the game. And with it he attained his first GSL when he was arguably the weakest he’d ever been mechanically.

Difference between Rain and herO:

While herO had a phenomenal year in 2015, Rain’s year was really strong as well with a GSL and a Top 4. Then you add in how much stronger Rain’s 2013-2014 years were, his influence on the Protoss race, and the paths they took for their tournaments and it’s clear that Rain was ahead.

#7 | sOs

Achievements:
Tier 1

• GSL 2013 S1 - Top 4
  
• WCS Season 1 Finals - 2nd
  
• BlizzCon 2013 - 1st
  
• IEM WC 2014 - 1st
  
• Hot6ix Cup - 1st
  
• GSL S2 2015 - Top 4
  
• BlizzCon 2015 - 1st


Tier 2:

• DH Stockholm 2015 - Top 4


Tier 3:

• RB NY - 2nd
  
• MSI 2015 - 1st

Back in 2013, I wrote that sOs’ victory at BlizzCon wasn’t the ending of the year, it was the real beginning of sOs’ story. Since then he has won three other big tournaments: IEM WC, Hot6ix Cup and Blizzcon 2015. All of that tells us one thing, sOs is one of the clutchest players SC2 has ever seen. Combine that clutchness with an insane kind of free flowing playstyle that allows him to pull any kind of build or composition at any time against anyone of any race and you get the recipe for one of the most dangerous players in the world. When huge amounts of money is on the line, when the pressure is on, sOs remains completely unfazed. When other players crumble, sOs seems to rise to another level. When other players play safe, sOs plays even crazier than before. sOs has no fear, sOs has no shame and sOs is now 300,000 dollars richer for it.

Difference between sOs and Rain

How you ask, can a player that has won two Blizzcons not be in the top 5? Aren’t they the biggest tournaments of their year? Yes random reader they are. However they are not the only tournament of the year. In fact there has been anywhere from 20-50 Premier events each year in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Winning the culminating end of the year event is amazing, but that is not the same thing as winning the year. sOs won Blizzcon 2013, yet many people would have put Taeja, INnoVation, Soulkey, Dear and possibly Jaedong ahead of him for that year. In terms of pure skill sOs has probably been around a Top 5 Protoss level for the entirety of HotS. The problem with sOs is that he doesn’t show it until the big one. And yes winning the big ones is amazing and huge and it counts for something, but that isn’t everything. In terms of pure consistency alone he has been worse than Classic, herO, Polt, Rain and PartinG in general consistency and peak consistency. Yet his wins were so massive that he jumped ahead of them on this list, but his consistency just wasn’t enough to get past 7th place.

#6 | Maru

Achievements:
Tier 1

• OSL 2013 - 1st
  
• GSL Season 3 2013 - Top 4
  
• WCS Season 3 Finals 2013 - Top 4
  
• Bizzcon 2013 - Top 4
  
• GSL Season 2 2014 - Top 4
  
• SSL 2015 - 1st
  
• IEM Taipei - 2nd
  
• GSL S3 2015 - Top 4

In terms of sustained peak consistency, there is no one else on this list that can match Maru. From the day he won OSL in 2013 to now, he has always been a Top 3 player in his race (and at points top 1). This is not something you can say for any other player on this list (Even INnoVation had a drop off in the early half of 2014). If I had to describe Maru, he most reminds me of Life. He doesn’t have the crazy peaks of domination where he kills everyone, but he has an incredible consistency, one that has lasted three years with Maru just wailing on his opponents with constant aggression. Among the Terrans, he is probably the best there ever was at taking initiative in a game and snowballing that into a victory.

Difference between Maru and sOs:

In terms of player paths at their major victories Maru and sOs are very close. In fact sOs edges Maru out by just a few Top 10 players, so how did Maru place ahead of sOs on this list? Because of his insane consistency. Here is an interesting stat. Outside of their major Top 4 finishings, how many Top 8s in Korean leagues do you think sOs and Maru have respectively? sOs has 1 extra. Maru has 6. Once I add in the paths of the players they had to get there, it becomes instantly clear that Maru has beaten more top 10 players throughout his career than sOs and has had much more consistency. Those two factors just outweigh the prestige of sOs’ victories.