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Rogue: Climbing the Ladder - Rank 2 - Road to BlizzCon

Forum Index > SC2 General
71 CommentsPost a Reply
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Rogue: Climbing the Ladder - Rank 2 - Road to BlizzCon

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
Graphics byshiroiusagi
October 24th, 2017 15:22 GMT
Photo Credit: Shayla
Rogue
Lee Byung Ryul


Climbing the Ladder


by Olli


Banelings waddle up the natural ramp, looking for any potential connection. It makes little difference at this point, the game is Rogue's. A massive army of hydralisks and queens forces its way up, shooting down all interceptors before they can do any harm. herO realizes his defeat and concedes. Rogue has qualified for the WCS Global Finals. On match point, with his back against the wall, against one of the most dangerous players in StarCraft II, Rogue has done what seemed impossible only a few weeks ago. When all odds were stacked against him, Rogue pulled through.

His rather weak 2600 WCS points are boosted massively by two tournament victories towards the end of the year—IEM Shanghai and GSL Super Tournament. Had Rogue not won both of them, he would not be here. That BlizzCon qualifying run, stretching across two championships, included wins over (T)GuMiho, (P)Stats, (Z)Dark, (T)ByuN, (P)herO, (T)Maru, (P)Dear, (T)INnoVation, and (P)herO again. Had Rogue lost any of these series, he would not be here. So is this just who Rogue is now? A player who, when the clutch is required, performs to the very best of his ability and outplays even the best in the world? We commonly associated these last minute runs with his team-mate sOs, a player that specializes in bringing out the best when it counts. It appears we must begin to describe Rogue in similar terms.

"Is this just who Rogue is now? A player who, when the clutch is required, performs to the very best of his ability and outplays even the best in the world?"
But how did this happen? At the start of the year, Rogue crashed out of the GSL in the first round and did not even qualify for SSL. There was talk of him playing more Overwatch than StarCraft II, and even retirement was murmured to be an option for him. When Rogue tore his path through the IEM Shanghai championship to win his first ever trophy, he appeared a fundamentally changed player. Instead of relying on trickery and deception, Rogue outplayed his opponents in standard games. He exploited every chink in their armor, made subtle but intelligent adjustments and simply outclassed them. He brought to the table the kind of standard finesse we usually associate with Zergs like (Z)Dark and (Z)soO, but not Rogue. How did he go from a Proleague wildcard to a sturdy macro player?


Rogue overcomes INnoVation in standard macro games.




Winrate


60.13% vs. Terran
65.22% vs. Protoss
64.06% vs. Zerg

Rank


Circuit Standings
8

WCS Points


5600



The answer is quite simple. When Rogue won IEM Shanghai, he had been top of the Korean ladder for a good amount of time. His MMR then—and now—is astonishing. Rogue regularly occupies the top spots on the Korean ladder with not one, but two accounts at, and sometimes above, 7000 MMR. To put that in comparison, Serral and ShoWTimE were hailed in the international scene for reaching that mark in Europe. Rogue did it in Korea, where the best players in the world hold their practice sessions, and held that high MMR for months straight. This meant that he consistently played against only the very best in the scene—the INnoVations, the soOs, the Darks and the Stats of the world. His skill guaranteed him an even better practice situation, and improved him yet again.

It is time to start looking towards the Korean ladder as a valuable indicator of skill. "Ladder doesn't matter" is foolish commentary. Nonsense. All the best Korean players have, for years, said in interviews that ladder is their primary tool for practice. They take it seriously. And as such, the examples of players reaching top spots on the Korean ladder and then carrying that skill over into tournaments is extremely long. Then-(P)Liquid'HerO reached the top of the Korean ladder before his breakout performances at Dreamhack, MLG and NASL. IM_(P)Seed's GSL championship was predated by a surge to #1 on ladder. (T)Maru's Starleague championship shortly after the beta of Heart of the Swarm was only shocking to those that had not followed his absurd ladder record at the time. (P)Zest's all-kill against SKT, his GSL championship following immediately after, as well as his domination of 2014 as a whole were all accompanied by him holding the top spot on the Korean ladder for almost the whole year. (T)TY and (P)Stats battled for the top spot early this year, when TY won WESG and IEM Katowice and Stats took home his GSL Championship. (T)INnoVation, in his stretch of dominance this year, was second only to Rogue on ladder. Rogue himself is only the latest in a long, long list of champions built on the Korean ladder.

Rogue's self-reinvention happened behind closed doors, and we had little chance to witness it. The WCS system is partially to blame—a player who loses early in a season has very few competitions to play in for a long time. But the signs were there. His sustained high ladder ranking should have been the indicator we needed that things were beginning to look up for Rogue. And they sure did. Rogue used his time out of the spotlight superbly. He fixed tendencies that kept him down and replaced them with better. No longer will he rely on specially crafted builds that fall apart if countered correctly. He now appears entirely confident in his own skill and ability to outplay even the very best in the world, and plays accordingly. No longer is he the player who was sent out specifically to snipe certain opponents on certain maps by his team in Proleague, but he is now a player you would send out against anyone—because he is that good. And he finally has the championship trophies to prove it.

And so it happens that Rogue, a player who, until the very last map we saw him play, had not even qualified for BlizzCon, enters the tournament as one of its greatest favorites. No other player in the world can claim to possess the same form Rogue is in at the moment. But form is temporary. Class is permanent. Now is the time for Rogue to show that he is not a one-time appearance, and that he does not run purely on form. All the signs for true greatness and skill are there. Now is the time to show his true class.








Writer: Olli
Editor: Zealously, munch
Photo Credit: DreamHack, Shayla
Statistics: Aligulac
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TL+ Member
Pandain
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States12989 Posts
October 24 2017 15:27 GMT
#2
Great article, rogue is a hell of a story
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13974 Posts
October 24 2017 15:28 GMT
#3
Rogue is looking damn good, but will be go full dear...
Kaina + Drones Linkcro Summon Cupsie Yummy Way
Twinkle Toes
Profile Joined May 2012
United States3605 Posts
October 24 2017 15:31 GMT
#4
Rogue may not be the best, but he will be one of the greatest!
Bisu - INnoVation - Dark - Rogue - Stats
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
October 24 2017 15:36 GMT
#5
Since KR ladder ranks matter, does that mean 7k MMR number 1 GM Serral will crush Gumi?
Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom8987 Posts
October 24 2017 15:37 GMT
#6
On October 25 2017 00:36 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Since KR ladder ranks matter, does that mean 7k MMR number 1 GM Serral will crush Gumi?


Yes
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
Durnuu
Profile Joined September 2013
13320 Posts
October 24 2017 15:37 GMT
#7
On October 25 2017 00:36 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Since KR ladder ranks matter, does that mean 7k MMR number 1 GM Serral will crush Gumi?

Zest will win Blizzcon :O
BUNNYYYYYYYYY https://i.imgur.com/BiCF577.png
Morbidius
Profile Joined November 2010
Brazil3449 Posts
October 24 2017 15:47 GMT
#8
Weird how half of the article is talking about how KR ladder is the best thing since sliced bread and a true indicator of skill, but Serral topping it doesn't even make him top 10.
Has foreign StarCraft hit rock bottom?
hexhaven
Profile Joined July 2014
Finland931 Posts
October 24 2017 15:53 GMT
#9
Taking bets on who the last article is about!
WriterI shoot events. | http://www.jussi.co/esports
Olli
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Austria24417 Posts
October 24 2017 15:56 GMT
#10
On October 25 2017 00:47 Morbidius wrote:
Weird how half of the article is talking about how KR ladder is the best thing since sliced bread and a true indicator of skill, but Serral topping it doesn't even make him top 10.


What I hear is that Serral's rank is inflated due to holidays in Korea where nobody practiced. In Rogue's case, his ladder skill translated over into tournaments - Serral's hasn't (yet). I do think it will soon though.
Administrator"Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."
SetGuitarsToKill
Profile Blog Joined December 2013
Canada28396 Posts
October 24 2017 16:03 GMT
#11
Uh you guys made a mistake. You accidentally released the #1 player's article first and also mistitled it. Should say 1 instead of 2
Community News"As long as you have a warp prism you can't be bad at harassment" - Maru | @SetGuitars2Kill
engesser1
Profile Blog Joined December 2016
264 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-10-24 16:25:32
October 24 2017 16:14 GMT
#12
In my opinion, KR ladder is a little bit different than EU. This is not about how bad or good they are, it's all about non-standard games. I saw only on the KR ladder, godlike games (rare to see some tricks, micro while you speaking on a phone or weird macro games and more). As for me, Rogue, as like as Maru or sOs, the real high MMR players. They are ready to show you how to deal with every kind of anything. Naturally born geniuses that is what you can see behind KR MMR ladder.
Hope, Rogue vs Dark in final.
And yes, Rogue #1.
This photo is so cool. Best part of article.
Maru, he is the reason why i'm still playing and watching sc2
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
October 24 2017 16:22 GMT
#13
So INno will be arriving at Anaheim as the favorite for the third time lets hope he can finally have a good performance.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
Argonauta
Profile Joined July 2016
Spain4937 Posts
October 24 2017 16:25 GMT
#14
youtu.be


"From #1 in the ladder to #1 in IEM shanghai to #1 in our hearts"

Indeed Artosis Indeed
Rogue | Maru | Scarlett | Trap
TL+ Member
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
7676 Posts
October 24 2017 16:26 GMT
#15
Inb4 this thread devolves into raging about Inno as #1 instead of actually talking about Rogue
Denominator of the Universe
TL+ Member
The_Templar
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
your Country52797 Posts
October 24 2017 16:26 GMT
#16
On October 25 2017 00:53 hexhaven wrote:
Taking bets on who the last article is about!

TaeJa?
Moderatorshe/her
TL+ Member
curufinwe_wins
Profile Joined August 2017
68 Posts
October 24 2017 16:30 GMT
#17
On October 25 2017 00:47 Morbidius wrote:
Weird how half of the article is talking about how KR ladder is the best thing since sliced bread and a true indicator of skill, but Serral topping it doesn't even make him top 10.



Well remember Neeb has held a top 10 korean ladder literally continously since Sept 2016... With numerous forays into the #1 spot.

Also Zest has held top protoss honors quite a proportion of the time on ladder.
yht9657
Profile Joined December 2016
1810 Posts
October 24 2017 16:31 GMT
#18
I actually thought the last 2 articles would be released together...
Zealously
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
East Gorteau22261 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-10-24 16:48:40
October 24 2017 16:44 GMT
#19
I'm glad people aren't giving undue attention to the ramblings of some writer and properly focusing on what really matters, the ordering of players
AdministratorBreak the chains
The_Red_Viper
Profile Blog Joined August 2013
19533 Posts
October 24 2017 17:12 GMT
#20
I will be honest, i think the ladder "rant" should have been a seperate article. It feels a bit too much center of attention here for my liking. Not that it ruins the article, but i would have prefered a little less of that personally.
Still a good read though, i didn't comment a lot on the articles this year but i really enjoyed the road to blizzcon series again, thanks for doing it!

About the PR, i think the top 3 or so players could be in any order and you could make cases for it, so it doesn't really matter too much
With that being said, if you guys really care so much about PRs, then do your own here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/527600-community-pr-v8-a-new-chance-for-foreigners
IU | Sohyang || There is no God and we are his prophets | For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.” | Ignorance is the parent of fear |
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