Much was made of the fact that INnoVation was excluded from last months power ranking, but there's no doubt that his inclusion was deserved this time around. INnoVation had his best month of 2018 in July. He looked unconvincing at times at HomeStory Cup, but he was the one left standing when the dust settled. That victory seemed to be the harbinger of another prosperous summer as INnoVation swept his GSL group en route to the Round of 16.

For a moment, INnoVation gave the community a reason to believe he had returned to his dominating form of old when he throttled Rogue in the first round of GSL vs. the World. He was then swept by Serral, who made it clear in no uncertain terms that INnoVation doesn’t belong among the truly elite.

Of course, there’s still time to turn things around. INnoVation performances in the summer months have been historic, and he looked strong in Code S. Group nomination are right around the corner, and the weeks that follow will tell us if INnoVation is ready to mount a campaign for a fourth GSL championship, or if he'll simply melt in the heat.

A lot has happened since our last power ranking. Serral won GSL vs. the World. soO was eliminated from GSL. INnoVation won HSC and Leenock turned the clock back half a decade. And yet, lost amid all the success and failures that have colored our scene over the past month, is the fact that Trap’s stranglehold over the number nine spot on the Teamliquid power rank is as solid as ever.

Trap neither benefited nor suffered from competing in GSL vs. The World, so our lasting impression of him from July is his authoritative take down of Bunny and TY in the Code S RO32. His daring proxy gate play against TY was particularly striking. Trap now finds himself in the Round of 16 of Code S for the sixth time in his last seven tries. The sobering reality is that’ it’s always been the end of the road—Trap has gone 1-2 in his Round of 16 group on each of his previous five trips.

Some might be surprised to learn that Trap currently sits in the eighth spot in the WCS Korea Standings. If he can maintain a similar death-grip on that spot as he has in the TL power rankings, then an unexpected trip to BlizzCon might be in store for our quietly consistent Protoss.

GuMiho has been his usual active self over the past month or so, playing a whopping 88 games across a variety of tournaments. His opening GSL group was undoubtedly the most important of the lot, and GuMiho passed the test with flying colors. While he didn't face the toughest of opponents, wins over herO and MMA saw him reach the Round of 16 where he’ll hope to earn a repeat RO8 appearance.

GuMiho’s results online have been less impressive. Wins over Rogue, TY and Trap are promising in a vacuum, but when counterbalanced by losses to Zest, Dark and Bunny, things start to sour a bit. One could chalk GuMiho’s spotted results up to his packed schedule and the relatively relaxed environment, but GuMiho recent inconsistency is a worry trend. It serves as a reminder that GuMiho remains in the second tier of Korean StarCraft II beneath elites like Dark and Maru. He’s competitive and has a puncher's chance, but is rarely a favorite against the real heavyweights.

Classic had a rough July, which began with Code S elimination at the hands of GSL rookie Reynor. Things didn't get much better after. He lost to Reynor (again) in OlimoLeague, and then had some mixed performances in Master's Coliseum that saw him beat soO and Leenock yet lose to ByuN and Impact. In GSL vs. The World, he narrowly defeated Scarlett 3-2, followed by an equally tight 2-3 defeat at the hands of Dark.

Not all of Classic's fall in the ranking is due to his poor results—he was also surpassed by a handful of players making dramatic rises. Still, dropping out of Code S in the RO32 is borderline inexcusable for a Power Rank player, and it's our respect for Classic's long run as an elite player that keeps him in the middle of the rankings. Classic's close series versus Dark showed us that he still has a lot of fight in him, and he may very well use his remaining opportunities to remind us why he's been 2018's best Protoss.

TY made his triumphant return to the Teamliquid power rankings last month, and he prolonged his stay in the top ten due to some uncharacteristically active tournament participation. Most of the time, TY’s paucity of matches makes ranking him a guessing game, but his literally unprecedented level of activity over the last month (actually the most tournament games in a month in his entire career) paints a clearer picture. TY went 16–5 in matches with wins over the likes of Rogue, Dark, and Classic, and secured his Code S RO16 spot.

The competition is a bit sparse, but TY has earned the right to be called the second best Terran in Korea behind Maru. It’s a shame he isn’t more popular, because GSL vs. The World could have been an intriguing test to see how he measures up against the top championship contenders. If he had been in INnoVaton's spot, could he have put up a better fight against Serral? Would he have even advanced beyond Rogue?

With a lot of players putting in strong performances and moving up in our ranking, someone had to drop down to accommodate them—that someone was Rogue.This comes despite this past month being quite good to him: he maintained reasonable online form with about as many good wins as bad losses, and advanced easily from his GSL RO32 group (in no small part due to the shocking upset of soO). But GSL vs The World is what ultimately made him lose ground.

Rogue essentially answers the question of 'How far can one bad Best of 5 make you fall down?' in this month's Power Rank. Turns out that, in a scene as cutthroat and ruthless as this one, it can make you fall three spots. It wasn't just that he lost to INnoVation while playing a generic and generally weak style without too much resistence, but it was how easily Serral dissected the supposedly-returning Terran right afterwards. That certainly leaves a bad taste in one's mouth about Rogue's level, but he remains reasonably consistent. His dropping down really is more to do with others outperforming him this month than him doing poorly.

Dark has had a rather strong month. His online form has been strong, and he converted it into dominating victories over Neeb in the GSL RO32 and GSL vs the World, as well as a victory against Classic and a good series against Serral (despite losing the latter to the eventual champion).

Dark is one of the most balanced and consistent Zergs out there, an elite player in all three matchups who is perhaps guilty of falling just below the very best at times. And despite again losing out in GSL vs The World, the level he's currently exhibiting shows vast improvement and an ability to compete for the big titles again. Watch out for Dark in GSL and the Super Tournament next month.

After a lengthy relegation to close-but-no-cigar purgatory, Stats once again graces us with his presence in this Power Rank. While his Code S group went largely as expected with him falling to INnoVation before sweeping Cure and Hurricane to advance in second place, it was his surprisingly solid performance in GSL vs. the World that has him rocketing back up. He followed up two quick 3-0 beatdowns against Cyan and Special with extremely resilient play to mark a monumental 3-1 victory over Maru, silencing the doubters that stated he’d lost his championship touch. A bitterly fought loss against Serral undoubtedly ruined the ending Stats wanted, but, for the most part, Stats has shown stable play while simultaneously reaffirming his ability to beat the best, something he’s been lacking ever since his quick exit from the GSL last season. Preparation was the name of the game for Stats in this tournament, and it showed in the diversity of strategies utilized in his wins against Maru and the first two games against Serral.

Stats has always been consistent, even if his online record belies his offline performances and pushes doubts towards his overall skill level. Thankfully for his fans, he seems to be peaking just in time for the last leg of the year which holds the final season of GSL and, more importantly, a return trip to Blizzcon. All in all, Stats has shown strong performances since his mid season drop and fully deserves this spot.

It happened. We saw Serral play Koreans, and the results were nothing short of astounding. He's not only the best foreigner in the world, but his championship at GSL vs The World even has a lot of people calling him the outright best player in the world—and they might be right.

The manner in which he won GSL vs The World is what truly makes his run so impressive. He 3-0'd INnoVation (who came off a victory against Rogue), ended Dark's winstreak against foreigners, then clutched the finals against Stats after falling behind in the series twice. The cherry on top, however small it may seem, is his victory over Maru in the team match.

You might have expected Serral to come in first in this ranking, and we assure you it was by no means an easy decision to put him in second place. The only thing holding him back minimally is that GSL vs The World is 'only' one tournament against the very best Koreans, and the player above him has put together a string of them, impressing in all. If Serral keeps playing at this level, though, you will see him top this ranking sooner rather than later.

As hinted above, Maru still holds the top spot on this list after a rather shaky showing in GSL vs. the World (by his standards—he still reached the semifinals). What saves his throne this month is less that he excelled this month, but more the consistency he showed in months prior leaving him with a bit of a 'buffer' that allows him to remain here despite not winning everything he enters.

Maru looked remarkably human in GSL versus the World, but his overall numbers have yet to dip. His GSL Ro32 was more challenging than you'd expect, but wins over Leenock and Forte sent him through to the Round of 16 in GSL. And, while he suffered losses to Stats and Serral during the main event and team portion of GSL vs. the World respectively, he never looked so out of depth that we could conclusively say he's gotten worse compared to months prior. At the end of the day, he retains a 23-3 series record, and while that may not be as awe-inspiring as his previous 22-1, we're choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially given the level of competition he regularly faces.

So, albeit barely, Maru keeps his top spot in our Power Rank.