Hot off a stellar July, Dark had an unseasonably cold August. With no foreigners to dismember in his GSL Ro16 group, Dark fell to Korean peers in Rogue and GuMiho. Rogue outfoxed him in game one of their series, forcing Dark to over make Roaches while Rogue was able to Drone and tech up to Lurkers. Dark was then banished to the decider match by Rogue’s crisp 1-1 timing attack in game two. Dark and GuMiho went back and forth throughout the night. Dark took the series 2-1 to open up the group, but unfortunately for him, GuMiho won where it mattered most and sent Dark packing in the decider match. However, seeing as this was arguably the hardest group of the Ro16, it’s hard to fault Dark too much for an early GSL exit.

With this GSL loss being Dark’s only major tournament result this month, there is no other evidence indicating that Dark has lost the killer instinct he displayed at GSL vs the World. As is often the case with power rankings, the other players on the list simply have better results to show this month, thus knocking Dark all the way down to number 10.

The vast ocean of competitive StarCraft is a turbulent thing. Storms come and go, they blow some players away and wash up new faces, the big fish eat the little fish, but Trap simply keeps on paddling. For another month he is our solid rock, something we can hold on to, in this stormy time for the scene. Aside from good showings against mighty players such as INnoVation and Solar, much of Trap’s August was dominated by two opponents: Leenock and Zest. Five times Trap met Zest, only a single time he was able to win his series, making Zest his top nemesis in online competitions this last month while clearly defining Trap’s spot in the Protoss hierarchy. As for Leenock, Trap met him three times, scoring one Bo7 victory in the ONPOONG Masters quarterfinals. Unfortunately, one might argue, that was the wrong series to win.

Trap sat at 8th place in the WCS point standings before the Round of 16 of GSL Code S begun. Things had started well for him with a win against herO. But then came Zest, and after him came Leenock. Trap lost both series, being eliminated for the sixth time with a 1-2 match score at this stage of the tournament. And with the conclusion of the Round of 16, Trap fell down to, you guessed it, the 9th spot in the WCS point standings.

Making his debut in the TL.net Power Ranking this month is Neeb. The American Protoss has long been considered one of the best on the WCS Circuit, but he is only now, nearly two years removed from winning the KeSPA Cup, making an impact in GSL. The first foreigner to reach the Round of 4 since Jinro way back in 2011, Neeb has accomplished a tremendous feat, regardless of the semifinal result.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Neeb. He went 8-3 in matches in August (including a whopping nine PvZs), but five of those wins came in the North American qualifiers for WCS Montreal. He went 3-3 in offline matches—including his shocking win over Rogue—but he was swept by Scarlett in Master’s Coliseum (a curious result given the fact that he defeated her by a 4-0 score the very next day). All in all, Neeb’s position in the power ranking is well-deserved, and it will be interested to see if he will be able to climb even further in the rankings.

Slowly, but steadily, the reigning BlizzCon champion falls down the ranks. August wasn’t exactly terrible for Rogue, but neither was it great. He did reasonably well in online events, scoring some solid results for most of the month. Most importantly, he triumphed in what was described as this Round of 16’s Group of Death in GSL Code S, beating INnoVation and Dark to advance in first place, making a very strong case for himself in the tournament. The prospects to overcome his Code S quarterfinals curse looked quite good.

However, the further we got into August, the worse things got for Rogue. His online results declined, but that won't send you down two spots in the Power Rank. However, being completely schooled by Neeb in a Code S quarterfinals will do the trick. Wonky builds are nothing new with Rogue, but if they show up, there’s a strategy behind them, and someone who makes good decisions even under pressure. None of that happened against Neeb. It looked like Rogue ran into a wall head-on repeatedly, scratching his chin after every bump and then trying again, without any real idea or even will to get through. Now, a bad day doesn’t define a player, and Rogue looked good before that Round of 8 match, so we can’t count him out for anything… but the downward trend is real.

As in every month, GuMiho has been a busy bee, participating in whatever tournament he could find. Also as in every month, the results have been varied. It has been noted before that GuMiho remains dangerous to players of all calibers, but ranks just under the top tier of Korea’s elite. This conclusion can be very much confirmed with August’s results. Yes, the Towel Terran had some great online showings once more, especially against Stats. But his online performances would not be enough to allow him to climb two spots, as his victories over Stats were overshadowed by losses to Reynor, Cure, and Impact.

It’s GSL Code S, which we have to look at. He survived the Group of Death, going 3-3 against Dark in maps, but winning the deciding series to secure a spot in the quarterfinals (he beat INnoVation 2-0 as well). Losing to Maru in GSL’s round of 8 wasn't all too surprising, but the one-sided nature of the defeat was disappointing given GuMiho's strong TvT.

For GuMiho, Super Tournament will be the decisive ground regarding BlizzCon. He has the #8 spot for now, but it could still be taken away by any number of players below him. Consistency against his own tier of competition is what the Towel Terran requires to hold it.

Stats had a generally solid month for a player of his caliber, and while he wasn’t quite able to replicate his GSL vs the World run, he still put on a strong performance in Code S. He advanced in second place behind TY in his Ro16 group, proxy-gating his way past KeeN and out-dueling sOs in PvP. Stats has shown an impressively wide breadth of strategies this year, and his future opponents will have their hands full preparing against his well-rounded assault.

However, even with such a deep playbook, Stats was unable to best Zest in their full-set quarterfinal series. Stats took an early 2-1 lead in the series with the help of an ill-advised push from Zest game 1 and phenomenal Stasis Ward placement in game 3. Despite strong play from Stats, Zest was still able to pull the battle back in his favor and take the series 3-2. Overall, it was a good month for Stats, and lest we forget, he's still the last player to defeat Maru in a live, BO5+ series.

TY’s competitive spirit burned hot through August, as he continued his active participation in online tournaments after an uncharacteristically active July. Yet again, TY showed us just how good he is: he went 11-2 in online series, only losing to Dark and Zest. He won a KungFu Cup with victories over the likes of Classic, Dark and Trap, eliminated GuMiho from two tournaments, and showed his power in TvP by beating Patience and Classic in ONPOONG Masters. TY's GSL Code S results were even more glorious: He got out of his Ro16 group in first place, winning against Stats and sOs. He showed no mercy against an ailing Leenock in the quarterfinals, taking their series 3-0.

TY continues to fortify his position as the world’s #2 Terran behind Maru, with his TvP being especially fearsome. He may not have been on people’s minds for most of the year, but he's quietly crept up as one of the few legitimate challengers to Maru's throne.

After being shockingly snubbed last month, Zest is back in the Power Rank. July (and the first two days of August) wasn’t the most spectacular month for Zest, but he’s completely turned things around over the past few weeks. He won Master’s Coliseum 3 (beating soO in the finals) and finds himself in the Code S semifinals for the second time this year. One of only two players to reach the Round of 8 in all three seasons, Zest has been oddly consistent in Code S, especially considering his turbulent form elsewhere. Zest went 19-7 against Korean competition in August, but seven of those wins came over soO and Trap, neither of whom reached the elimination stages of Season 3. In fact, his only really noteworthy wins were a 2-1 over TY in Kung Fu Cup and his 3-2 victory over Stats last weekend.

On the whole, Zest continues his trend of winning ugly, while putting up impressive results when it matters most. He finds himself in quite the predicament this time around though, staring down Maru with a Code S finals berth at stake. Their last meeting will give Zest’s supporters little hope, but should he lose, the TL.net writers wouldn't dare to callously remove him from the rankings again (probably).

Serral rocked StarCraft II to its core in early August by winning GSL vs. the World, beating a slew of big name Koreans over the course of the long weekend (including a kinda-not-really showmatch against Maru). It was an unprecedented high in the Finnish Zerg’s career, a moment fans, Korean and foreign alike, will never forget. His detractors probably hoped he would fall victim to some sort of post championship hangover, but he hasn’t missed a beat since returning home. He tore through the WCS Montreal qualifiers and has only dropped a single game in four Best of 5s in the QLASH Invitational.

All of this is fine and dandy, but the pressure will be on Serral in the coming days as he prepares to break another record by winning his fourth WCS Circuit event this year. And of course beyond that is the event that really matters, the WCS Global Finals, a tournament which has never been won by a foreigner. It’s still a few months away, but the truth is it’s the only event in which Serral can still impress. A loss anywhere else would be catastrophic and it’s quite possible falling short at BlizzCon would be as well. These are the sort of expectations that are being deservedly placed on Serral given his exceptional results. Should he rattle off a win in Montreal there’s no reason to believe he won’t continue to hold down the number two spot in our power rankings as we prepare for the end of year spectacular.

Maru’s GSL vs. the World might not have ended as he hoped, but he’s effortlessly rebounded from his losses to Serral and Stats by winning the demonstration event at the Asian Games and making it to the semifinals in GSL Season 3. His 17-1 record in games is evidence of how special Maru has been over the last few months. His dominance might have been briefly interrupted, but he’s back on the horse as if nothing had ever happened. Much was made of his woes in TvT, but Maru completely outclassed GuMiho in their semifinal tilt, setting up another Best of 7 against Zest. We all know how that went last time around and a third consecutive trip to the finals seems imminent.

What Maru is doing is unquestionably historic and his efforts have been rewarded by another month in the top spot in our power rankings. If there ever was confirmation of his greatness, this would be it. At this point it seems unlikely that he’ll be yielding his current position. He’s a massive favorite against any opponent he faces and the occasional loss is easily forgiven when compared to his back to back Code S titles. The amazing this is that by the time we do this power ranking thing again, he’s very likely to have won another.