All things must come to an end. It’s the ultimate truth so often denied. For fans, casters, and writers, the finite nature of progaming is the unspoken threat lurking on the horizon. For players though, it’s an even grimmer reality. Mortgaging a future for what? A few years living a dream while military service looms like a nagging taskmaster. Mvp and NesTea retired on their own terms. They went out as legends. It’s hard to imagine someone like INnoVation will have too many regrets when his time comes. There are others—Zest, Classic, Stats and so many more who have every reason to be satisfied with how their careers went. Far more players retire in quiet though, with a few tweeted words in hangul being the only thing to mark their passing. They never won anything, never made a mark, but they lived the way they wanted, even if it was only for the blink of an eye.
"soO has suffered like no other player in StarCraft II history."
And then there’s soO. soO has suffered like no other player in StarCraft II history. He’s fallen upon the sword over and over. He has stood on the GSL stage six times while his opponent celebrated with confetti streaming from the rafters. He’s stared out at a crowd cheering for someone else, saying all the right things before retreating to stitch himself back together and try again. soO’s bravery is unquestionable. He wouldn’t have been able to endure so much if he weren’t courageous. He’s experienced regret, anxiety, disappointment, guilt - a gambit of emotions that would have stopped a lesser man in his tracks. But he keeps on going because this is his dream. And even on evenings where he loses a final and that dream morphs into a nightmare, he still wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. Every programer has thoughts of lifting a trophy, of a triumph so vibrant it overshadows the losses that came before it. soO still dreams of that moment. He’s driven by it, spurned to forever chase his eden.
KeSPA Cup was not that moment. Sure, by his own admission it was wonderful. It even made him feel why someone would dream of being a progamer. But it wasn’t what he really wanted. It was a minor event lacking in prestige. The victory had less historical consequence and would be lost among the shuffle. GSL was what really mattered. We knew it. soO knew it. And this realization transformed a blissful moment into its own form of torture. By this point soO was long since established as a Kong. He succumbed to legend, becoming that which StarCraft players fear most. Only a suitable victory could break the curse and this weekender was not it. soO’s victory at KeSPA Cup was too similar to the hollow victories of his idol, YellOw, the original Kong. It was fitting, a taunt reserved for the most anguished man in the game. Someone who was hurtling through a career that had long since gone off the rails. One which had become a graveyard of shattered dreams a world away from the paradise he intended it to be when it first began.
Winrate
47.92% vs. Terran 65.79% vs. Protoss 65.03% vs. Zerg
Rank
Circuit Standings 4
WCS Points
7750
And now twilight nears. soO has been a progamer for nine years. He is 25 years old and reality is catching up with him. He’s trying harder than ever before, but that’s partly because the game doesn’t come as easily as it once did. 2014 soO was a titan who won through brute force. Carried by peerless mechanics that transcended metas and conventional ways of playing, he smashed his way through tournaments with assured ease, leaving opponents bruised and battered in his wake. soO was wrathful and stubborn to a fault. Dubbed the Angry Zerg, he thrived on conflict. Jests, ceremonies, even flashy plays were fuel to the fire. soO was unstoppable, until he wasn’t and it all came crashing down around him.
2017 soO is different. His mechanics are still among the best, but LotV is a different game and it’s not as easy to overpower someone through injects and multitasking as it once was. Years of suffering have made him capable of processing defeat and finding the joys he might have once missed along the way. He’s smarter now, more adaptable mid-series. He’s an improved strategist, able to attack opponents from a multitude of angles instead of relying upon raw strength. In a purely mechanical sense, soO is a worse player than he was when he made his first four finals. But this soO is greater in every other way.
He’s a better, more mature person who has faced the worst StarCraft II can throw at him and emerged on the other side. He’s hung around because he still yearns for that moment he first became a progamer for. To lift a trophy and finally have it really matter. He loves his fans, he pushes himself to his limit for them. He even wrote an article for them, so they could know exactly how he feels. He wants to win in front of them because that would make it more complete. Win for himself, for everyone who has supported him through his journey and live out their dreams along with his. He’ll never give up chasing that moment of indescribable perfection.
BlizzCon could be that moment. It could be his chance to write over a troubled past and shatter shackles of despair unlike any in StarCraft history, StarCraft II or otherwise. To break the curse and become his own man, not the embodiment of disappointment and regret, would be the apex of his career.
Retirement is coming to claim soO. Maybe sooner rather than later. He’s running out of time to create the legacy he wanted, but because of that he’s more determined to make an account of himself he could be proud of than ever before. He’s living in the moment, charging up the mountain like Sisyphus never could. Because soO isn’t a Kong. He’s too brave and resolute to always fall short. Too kind and selfless to be jeered for his failings. Too skilled to never reach the zenith and too determined to never make his dreams reality.
soO is a champion. He always has been, but we have never gotten proof. soO once said that Classic played with a desperation to win that inspired him. He will have to find that within himself at BlizzCon because the hourglass is almost empty. Failure here consecrates him as the great ape falling off the Empire State Building, slain by the beauty of an impossible ideal. soO will always be remembered for the near-misses and botched opportunities. He will forever be the uncrowned champion.
As much as I love soO, I don't think he has much of a chance at winning. Too many counters on the field, I don't think he's favoured against any other korean except maybe herO
Retirement is coming to claim soO. Maybe sooner rather than later. He’s running out of time to create the legacy he wanted, but because of that he’s more determined to make an account of himself he could be proud of than ever before.
You can write it for all the sc2 pro considering there is only one or two years left for the WCS, so i dont get it.
soO #6 is a bit of a surprise for me. I would place him above Dark. I bet next will be Dark at #5, Stats at #4, herO at #3, Rogue at #2 and Innovation at #1.
Stats is the most consistant player, always well placed in 2017 but is it enough to make it through the 1st place ? I dont think so. Considering his recent results( SSL is not enough relevant imo ), it's not.
On October 20 2017 23:45 Fango wrote: As much as I love soO, I don't think he has much of a chance at winning. Too many counters on the field, I don't think he's favoured against any other korean except maybe herO
I don't think thats necessary true. Yes he lost some ZvZ's recently, but it can go his way aswell at blizzcon. I think he can beat anyone except Innovation and maybe Gumiho. But the fact he can, does not mean ofc that he will. Plus if we look recent tournaments, the top guys suffered both wins and losses from each other vice versa. Imho its really unpredictable. Depends a lot if there will be upsets in the group phase, and how the bracket will be drawed for ro8...
i personally think soO on his A-game is (still) pretty much favoured against any other player there is. To quote INnoVation (or at least the gsl translation of him some months back, GSL season 1: "I personally want to avoid soO because he has the class. He is so good when he performs well."
If we will have the pleasure to witness his top level play he will wreck nerds all day any day, stomping his way to the finals where he finally will have to face off NegasoO. Be prepared and pray for the most epic SCII battle in history.
On October 21 2017 00:16 Sakat wrote: And now the next five are completely interchangable in my view
Disagree for me it's an easy 1. Stats 2. Rogue 3. INnoVation 4. Dark 5. herO
For TL it's 1. INnoVation 2. Rogue 3. Stats 4. Dark 5. herO
Heresy. You have Innovation ranked third and Stats at 1?
1-2 in my opinion are a toss up between Inno and Rogue. Stats is a solid third.
I wonder how I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
He's probably had the best past year of any player save arguably INno, but the tournament is happening now not over the past year, and he hasn't looked the strongest recently.
Yeah, herO seems to have momentum at the moment. His run at Masters coliseum 2 was pretty awesome, 3-1 vs rogue , innovation and soo and then 4-0 vs dear in the finals. Would still rate at least Rogue and Innovation higher though
On October 21 2017 02:22 Cricketer12 wrote: I wonder How I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
It's interesting you give consistency as your reasoning for putting Stats above Inno, but then also put Rogue above Inno, who the Terran absolutely and utterly crushes by that very metric.
Top 5 IMO: 1) INnoVation: Korean with most gold medals in premier this year. 2 in the last 3 months as well so he's warm going into Blizzcon. A win could cement his + Show Spoiler +
Bonjwa
status. 2) Stats: Obscenely consistent player. Not just a bronze medalist though, he has his fair share of golds including a recent SSL win. Stats often goes far, this tournament will be no different. 3) Rogue: A somewhat inconsistent player carried by the fact he is peaking really hard right now. The type of player who could win the entire tournament or be eliminated in the RO8 and neither would be considered an upset. Still, when rogue is on point he looks like the best Zerg in the world. 4) herO[jOin]: Everything about herO is criminal. He is criminally underrated. When he wins games against "better" players he makes it look like an armed robbery with the most cutthroat timings and allins. herO plays his own style and he plays it well. Having met (and lost) to Rogue in the finals of both tournaments Rogue won it's only fitting to put him directly below the Zerg. 5) Dark: Dark is a great Zerg who is arguably under-decorated. He's always a major threat but seems to have developed a pattern recently of losing to the winner (or runner-up, depending on bracket luck) of the tournament in a close series that comes down to the final game of a boX.
On October 21 2017 02:22 Cricketer12 wrote: I wonder How I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
It's interesting you give consistency as your reasoning for putting Stats above Inno, but then also put Rogue above Inno, who the Terran absolutely and utterly crushes by that very metric.
Top 5 IMO: 1) INnoVation: Korean with most gold medals in premier this year. 2 in the last 3 months as well so he's warm going into Blizzcon. A win could cement his + Show Spoiler +
Bonjwa
status. 2) Stats: Obscenely consistent player. Not just a bronze medalist though, he has his fair share of golds including a recent SSL win. Stats often goes far, this tournament will be no different. 3) Rogue: A somewhat inconsistent player carried by the fact he is peaking really hard right now. The type of player who could win the entire tournament or be eliminated in the RO8 and neither would be considered an upset. Still, when rogue is on point he looks like the best Zerg in the world. 4) herO[jOin]: Everything about herO is criminal. He is criminally underrated. When he wins games against "better" players he makes it look like an armed robbery with the most cutthroat timings and allins. herO plays his own style and he plays it well. Having met (and lost) to Rogue in the finals of both tournaments Rogue won it's only fitting to put him directly below the Zerg. 5) Dark: Dark is a great Zerg who is arguably under-decorated. He's always a major threat but seems to have developed a pattern recently of losing to the winner (or runner-up, depending on bracket luck) of the tournament in a close series that comes down to the final game of a boX.
He is a Stats fanboy, let him be biased with the #1 rank.
Realistically though, #1 is either Rogue or Inno. They have the form and the momentum heading into Blizzcon. Stats had a good 2017 (with half of Inno's trophies though) but he isn't at his peak right now.
Agreed on your ranking by the way, and nice description of each player.
On October 20 2017 23:01 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Failure here consecrates him as the great ape falling off the Empire State Building, slain by the beauty of an impossible ideal. soO will always be remembered for the near-misses and botched opportunities. He will forever be the uncrowned champion.
Very nice article but I disagree with this part. Even if he doesn't win Blizzcon (which is a fairly slim chance as 1 of 16 competitors), he might still decide to stay on for another year or two, so it may not be his last chance. He should probably look at it as his last chance though (and it still may be). I do really hope he wins.
I'm worried about his ZvT if he makes it to the later rounds, though.
On October 21 2017 02:22 Cricketer12 wrote: I wonder How I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
It's interesting you give consistency as your reasoning for putting Stats above Inno, but then also put Rogue above Inno, who the Terran absolutely and utterly crushes by that very metric.
Top 5 IMO: 1) INnoVation: Korean with most gold medals in premier this year. 2 in the last 3 months as well so he's warm going into Blizzcon. A win could cement his + Show Spoiler +
Bonjwa
status. 2) Stats: Obscenely consistent player. Not just a bronze medalist though, he has his fair share of golds including a recent SSL win. Stats often goes far, this tournament will be no different. 3) Rogue: A somewhat inconsistent player carried by the fact he is peaking really hard right now. The type of player who could win the entire tournament or be eliminated in the RO8 and neither would be considered an upset. Still, when rogue is on point he looks like the best Zerg in the world. 4) herO[jOin]: Everything about herO is criminal. He is criminally underrated. When he wins games against "better" players he makes it look like an armed robbery with the most cutthroat timings and allins. herO plays his own style and he plays it well. Having met (and lost) to Rogue in the finals of both tournaments Rogue won it's only fitting to put him directly below the Zerg. 5) Dark: Dark is a great Zerg who is arguably under-decorated. He's always a major threat but seems to have developed a pattern recently of losing to the winner (or runner-up, depending on bracket luck) of the tournament in a close series that comes down to the final game of a boX.
I think I agree with your rogue assessment to the letter, he reminds me too much of 2013 dear right now unfortunately
I think soO winning blizzcon just before retirement would be the best story possible.
As a side note, I agree with ranking INno and Rogue over Stats based on their current form and momentum regardless of what happened 3+ months ago. Same reason I don't think it's sacrilege to rank Neeb over Gumiho despite the GSL victory.
On October 21 2017 08:04 Kitai wrote: I think soO winning blizzcon just before retirement would be the best story possible.
As a side note, I agree with ranking INno and Rogue over Stats based on their current form and momentum regardless of what happened 3+ months ago. Same reason I don't think it's sacrilege to rank Neeb over Gumiho despite the GSL victory.
All 3 have won a korean tournament within the last month. But I find Dark the strongest opponent of the three, so I disagree with the current form argument.
On how to rank (not ranking placement at blizzcon but chance of winning blizzcon:
Start with the best all-round players of different races: Stats, Dark, Inno = Places 1-3 (no order implied)
Ask yourself who is capable of beating 2/3 of these on a given day in a best of 5: Rogue, soO, TY, herO = Places 4-7 (no order implied)
Ask yourself who is capable of beating 2/3 of the second tier on any given day in a best of 5: Neeb, Gumiho, Serral, Elazer = Places 8-11 (no order implied)
Everyone else could get far but realistically has <0.1 % chance of winning in first place.
Notice that I'm not ranking according to predicted finishing place, but on who has what probability to win. Now, I can calculate probabilities:
Probability that the winner comes from Tier 1: 60.0% Probability that the winner comes from Tier 2: 26.7% Probability that the winner comes from Tier 3: 13.3% Probability that one of {Snute, SpeCiaL, Kelhazur, TRUE, Nerchio} wins: < 0.1%
These are number figures on which I would confidently bet if I were a gambler.
How to interpret: Example: Tier 2. Probability that TY wins plus probability that herO wins plus probability that soO wins plus probability that Rogue wins ~20% total.
On October 21 2017 08:04 Kitai wrote: I think soO winning blizzcon just before retirement would be the best story possible.
As a side note, I agree with ranking INno and Rogue over Stats based on their current form and momentum regardless of what happened 3+ months ago. Same reason I don't think it's sacrilege to rank Neeb over Gumiho despite the GSL victory.
All 3 have won a korean tournament within the last month. But I find Dark the strongest opponent of the three, so I disagree with the current form argument.
Inno defeated Dark in a Bo7 a week before Stats did.......
With the exact same score as Stats, too. Inno also got to the semis of the Super Tournament while Stats dropped out in the Ro16 (and Rogue won). So as far as current form goes, we have Stats winning SSL and Ro16 in ST, Rogue Ro8 in GSL and winning ST, and Inno winning GSL and Ro4 ST.
Even if you think Rogue is overhyped, Inno > Stats for sure. I would say Inno > Rogue > Stats, but Rogue > Inno > Stats works too. I wouldn't object to Dark > Stats either, since he got GSL Ro4, SSL finals, and ST Ro4 (and brought every series to the decider).
I'd like to put my wordplay hat on, and discuss this sentence in the opening paragraph. I could go on for the entire article, and all the 'Road to Blizzcon' series, but I don't have the time or energy.
Far more players retire in quiet though, with a few tweeted words in hangul being the only thing to mark their passing.
This is a good line but reads a bit awkward. I would write it as:
Far more players retire in quiet, with the only thing to mark their passing are a few tweeted words in hangul.
Or as:
Far more players retire in quiet, with only a few tweeted words in Hangul to mark their passing.
Of course, writing is subjective, but I find it easier to captivate the audience when fewer words are used.
On October 21 2017 00:16 Sakat wrote: And now the next five are completely interchangable in my view
Disagree for me it's an easy 1. Stats 2. Rogue 3. INnoVation 4. Dark 5. herO
For TL it's 1. INnoVation 2. Rogue 3. Stats 4. Dark 5. herO
Heresy. You have Innovation ranked third and Stats at 1?
1-2 in my opinion are a toss up between Inno and Rogue. Stats is a solid third.
I wonder how I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
Players on momentum are more likely to win tournaments than constant players
I really disagree with this, lol. It's easy to say after the fact that "wow ____ is really good right now" but tons of players pull out big wins and then proceed to fall back into doing nothing noteworthy.
On October 21 2017 00:16 Sakat wrote: And now the next five are completely interchangable in my view
Disagree for me it's an easy 1. Stats 2. Rogue 3. INnoVation 4. Dark 5. herO
For TL it's 1. INnoVation 2. Rogue 3. Stats 4. Dark 5. herO
Heresy. You have Innovation ranked third and Stats at 1?
1-2 in my opinion are a toss up between Inno and Rogue. Stats is a solid third.
I wonder how I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
Players on momentum are more likely to win tournaments than constant players
I really disagree with this, lol. It's easy to say after the fact that "wow ____ is really good right now" but tons of players pull out big wins and then proceed to fall back into doing nothing noteworthy.
But they won a tournament in the process, maybe beating more constant players
On October 21 2017 12:22 Boggyb wrote: I feel like the players who've been playing SC2 for years without nearly the success of soO have suffered a lot more than he has.
They may have suffered more, but soO's is a different kind of suffering
On October 21 2017 00:16 Sakat wrote: And now the next five are completely interchangable in my view
Disagree for me it's an easy 1. Stats 2. Rogue 3. INnoVation 4. Dark 5. herO
For TL it's 1. INnoVation 2. Rogue 3. Stats 4. Dark 5. herO
Heresy. You have Innovation ranked third and Stats at 1?
1-2 in my opinion are a toss up between Inno and Rogue. Stats is a solid third.
I wonder how I have the guy with 11 semis in the past 13 tournaments at no 1...
Players on momentum are more likely to win tournaments than constant players
I really disagree with this, lol. It's easy to say after the fact that "wow ____ is really good right now" but tons of players pull out big wins and then proceed to fall back into doing nothing noteworthy.
Blizzcon can easily be that big win though. Whoever wins could be irrelevent next year. You can bet on consistant players winning more overall in their careers, but when looking at a specific event it's all about who shows up on the day
soO is a perfect example of consistancy not actually winning a tournament haha.
No matter how soO does at Blizzcon, he is still in the top 5 best players of Starcraft history... Maybe Innovation, MVP, Life, and arguably Taeja you could put above him? I don't think that MC or DRG or Nestea would be better than soO