While March was a spectacular month for fans of top-tier StarCraft II, the Power Rank committee spent much of it thinking 'Oh god, the next power rank is going to be a bloodbath' as the upsets continued to roll in. Anyway, here are the rules, and please don't hurt each other too much in the comments section.
The Power Rank is an aggregate, average ranking of separate lists submitted by individual members of the TeamLiquid.net writing staff.
Criteria considered include, but are not limited to: Tournament placements, overall record, quality of opponents faced, and quality of play.
Recent results are weighted more heavily, but players receive benefit of the doubt for consistent performance over time.
Close, But No Cigar
Reynor: After a poor IEM Katowice, Reynor resumed his rise on the WCS Circuit by defeating Serral and winning the top seed in the WCS Europe playoffs.
Neeb: Another member of the 'beat Serral in 2019' club, Neeb finished top eight at WESG and claimed the #2 playoff seed in WCS Americas.
Scarlett: Scarlett was dominant against foreigner opponents as she cut a path to a top four finish at WESG and won the #1 seed in the WCS Americas playoffs.
herO: The black magic that saw herO reach the top four of IEM Katowice did not avail him in Code S as he fell out in the RO16.
Rogue: Rogue ended soO's Code S run with two 2-0 victories in the RO16, but could not overcome his own playoff jinx when he lost to Classic in the Code S quarterfinals.
Bunny: The feelgood story of 2019 came to an end when Dark welcomed Bunny to the Code S playoffs by handing him a painful 0-3 defeat.
After suffering a crushing 0-3 loss to Solar in the IEM Katowice playoffs, TY roared back with a vengeance in his Code S RO16 group by defeating both GuMiho and Rogue in decisive 2-0 series. However, his RO8 match against Trap ended in a stinging 2-3 loss, where he nearly earned a reverse-sweep before his SCV-pull rush was thwarted in the final game.
It's somewhat odd that TY hasn't shown us any masterclass late-game performances in major tournaments lately, at least compared to the other two top Terrans in TY and INnoVation (especially considering TY was one of the original late-game masters). Early and mid-game shenanigans seem to be the key to TY's recent success, and maybe this is an aspect of his game to keep an eye on.
Oh, Dear. After going on an impressive PvT hot-streak in March, Dear falls one position in the power rank after his heat was abruptly cut off by Maru. Following his RO8 elimination at IEM Katowice, Dear breezed past Dark and Cure in Code S with a perfect 4-0 record to earn yet another quarterfinal berth. Going into his quarterfinal match against Maru, some fans actually felt that Dear was favored, given his absurd 20-game winning streak in PvT and Maru's less-than-convincing showings throughout the year.
Despite all that momentum behind him, Dear got a reality check in the form of a 3-1 stomp. Dear seemed to have a good game plan for the series, but just didn’t seem to have the reaction speed or micro necessary to defend against Maru and his incisive offense.
Trap was the real deal in GSL Code S, exceeding all previous expectations. First, he broke his years-long RO16 jinx by advancing from his group with victories against newly crowned WESG champion INnoVation and teammate sOs (though he did drop a series to Classic). Then, he reached his first ever Code S semifinals by defeating TY in the round of 8. Trap showed the full power of his PvT in his series against TY, defending against deadly-timing attacks and prevailing in a hard-fought full-set series. With recent wins over GuMiho, INnoVation, and TY in offline matches, Trap has surely proved he one of the most deadly PvT players in the world, which bodes well for his semifinal match against Maru.
It was disappointing to see Classic denied a travel permit to IEM Katowice (due to military service related restrictions), but at least being forced to focus solely on Code S has paid off for him. Classic first managed to get past the RO16 by flexing his PvP muscles, clipping the wings of the two Jin Air players in Trap and sOs.
Headed into his RO8 match against Rogue, Classic's PvZ ability was rightfully questioned due to his lack of significant matches in the match-up. And while Rogue did give him a run for his money, Classic showed us the power of preparation by winning via well-executed cheeses followed by strong mid-game pushes.
Classic's performance was far from flawless—he dropped an ugly game to Rogue where he lost an entire army after attacking into a turtled-up Zerg position. But as long as Classic has enough time to bring that vaunted 'GSL preparation,' he'll have a decent shot in any upcoming match.
soO is the first player on this month's Power Rank who was afflicted by the dreaded championship hangover, suffering Code S RO16 elimination (two losses to Rogue) just four days after winning a career-affirming championship at IEM Katowice. In situations like this, we often go to online results to give us a hint about where a player stands: in soO's case, his 10-9 overall map record since IEM Katowice leaves us shrugging our shoulders.
In time, we'll find out if soO's IEM Katowice or GSL Code S results represented the bigger surprise. That is to say, soO could be gearing up for one more sustained run as an elite player, or he may have just have pulled off a one-time, lightning-in-a-bottle run at IEM Katowice.
INnoVation’s lackluster performance at IEM Katowice was a major reason for his exclusion from the previous months' power rank, alongside his 2018 dry spell that saw him strain his past credit. However, Katowice turned out to be INnoVation's rock bottom before his amazing rebound at WESG.
As one of the three Korean representatives competing at WESG 2018, INnoVation plowed through the competition all the way up to the finals, only dropping two maps along the way (even Maru lay among the fallen foes). In the finals, INnoVation finally met someone who could give him a fair challenge in Serral (who he had already defeated 2-0 during the IEM Katowice group stage in lengthy games). INnoVation's TvZ prowess ended up shining through in a 4-3 victory, allowing him to win $150,000 and the 10th major StarCraft II title of his career.
Though the result left us celebrating the return of the real INnoVation, 2018 INnoVation showed up in his GSL RO16 group and was eliminated in two rather one-sided matches against Jin Air boys Trap and sOs. Nonetheless, a championship won with victories against Maru and Serral—regardless of their regression from 2018—is an impressive accomplishment.
Stats is a player who has earned considerable benefit of the doubt in both the long term (the most consistent player in all of LotV) and short term (2nd place at BlizzCon and IEM Katowice), and thus stays around the same rank despite not having played a single match since the last power rank.
It's been a chaotic 2019: Plenty of other players have experienced wild fluxes in their form, suffering or causing upsets at every turn (Bunny making it to the round of eight, Trap beating TY, Maru beating Dear after looking off for most of the year). Stats has avoided being hammered for his inactivity, even as his peers fly up and down around him in the rankings. Overall, while it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where Stats is, the mystery surrounding his form lets him maintain his top-five position for another month, and it will be interesting to see what direction Stats takes going into the middle part of the year.
March was an uncharacteristically poor month for Serral. Fresh off a surprising round of 8 exit at IEM Katowice, Serral participated at another lucrative 'weekender' tournament in WESG less than two weeks later. And, while he defeated Harstem, Mana, ShoWtimE, Dark and Scarlett, Serral’s weekend was bookended by disappointment: A 0-2 loss to Neeb in the tournament’s first match, and a 3-4 loss to INnoVation in the finals. It marked Serral's second consecutive major tournament loss after he won seven in 2018.
Serral suffered an additional two losses later in the month, posting a 5-2 record in the 8-player, round robin portion of WCS Winter Europe. Serral notched wins over Elazer, Lambo and PtitDrogo, Rail, and ShoWTimE, but his pair of 0-2 losses to HeRoMaRinE and Reynor were far more prominent.
When our power ranking was last released in the days following IEM Katowice, Maru’s stock was lower than it had been in quite some time after his tournament came to a disappointing end in the group stage.
It’s been an up and down thirty-odd days since then. Maru wasn’t the dominating force we expected him to be in the round of 16 of Code S, limping into the bracket stage in second place from his group. But he made up for it with an authoritative display against Dear two weeks later which saw him advance through to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season.
Sandwiched between those domestic appearance was a less-than-stellar showing at WESG 2018 where Maru finished third, losing to INnoVation in the semifinals and even dropping a series to MeomaikA (gulp) in the group stage.
At the end of the day, Maru is still alive in GSL as its reigning, back-to-back-to-back champion, and he has a very good shot at winning an incredible fourth title. It's too early to say 2018 Maru is back, but there's reason to be optimistic again.
This month's Power Rank was one of the most confusing and difficult ones ever, with several players having a legitimate claim to the #1 spot. When we added the votes up, it ended up being the steady Dark who was rewarded over players who had more spectacular moments.
In the period between power ranks, Dark put up strong, but not exactly superlative results. He finished top eight at WESG, where he lost 1-3 to Serral in the RO8 after taking down six foreigner opponents in the lower rounds. He had a minor stumble in the Code S RO16 where he lost to Dear in the group winners match, but he advanced to the playoffs with two wins over herO. In the quarterfinals, he brought a brutal end to Bunny's underdog run in a 3-0 rout.
Still, when you add up everything Dark has done in 2019, he's put together an impressive body of work. He finished top four at IEM Katowice, top eight at WESG (even qualifying as one of Korea's three representatives is a real achievement), and is currently in the top four in GSL Code S. No other player has enjoyed the same degree of all-around success.
In Dark's most comprehensive victories, he's looked like every bit the championship-class player. At the same time, he's rarely played a complete dud of a game. Unlike other elite players, Dark hasn't suffered a single 'bad' or embarrassing major tournament loss in 2019. soO and INnoVation were eliminated in the Code S RO16 immediately after winning championships, Stats was upset in the Code S RO32 months ago, and Maru was eliminated in the IEM Katowice RO24 group stage. Even Serral stumbled recently, finishing 3rd place in the WCS Europe round robin where he was expected to destroy the competition. Dark? The only 'WTF' result he has this year is a 3-8 loss to a retiring ByuN in an online showmatch—other than that, he's consistently climbed his way up in tournaments before losing to a finalist.
In a period where all of our recent champions have shown us flaws, Dark's hallmark consistency carries him to the #1 spot.
Not an easy Power Rank to make this month with so much shakeup in top results. From a sanity check, Dark does have the 2nd most WCS points right now after soO - maybe soO could be moved higher
oh man I am ready for the shit storm from certain posters, all in all I think its a pretty reasonable power ranking after some very inconsistent results from top players that makes it very hard to get a clear picture of who is on top currently
Odd seeing Dark at #1 but he's quietly been one of the best players this year so I think it's fair to rank him as number 1. This power ranking really shows how no one is dominant.
This month was just confusing... Dark no1 is strange but who else I guess.
Also I wonder what happen if Maru win GSL winning almost only tvp (which I think he will do), he looked less then stellar in tvt and tvz this last months, maybe it's just his tvp that's really good? I don't remember him losing one since sOs, or maybe it's really just GSL magics.
Edit: nvm he loss to Trap and Neeb at IEM, just Maru GSL magic I guess
On April 03 2019 12:39 starkiller123 wrote: oh man I am ready for the shit storm from certain posters, all in all I think its a pretty reasonable power ranking after some very inconsistent results from top players that makes it very hard to get a clear picture of who is on top currently
Inconsistent results makes things easier for the writers imo--things being unclear makes criticism more difficult.
Honestly I don't think anyone can claim the #1 spot right now, at least not without some asterisks. Might as well be Dark. Things will be much clearer after the first season of everything wraps up and we have a few recent champions.
On April 03 2019 12:39 starkiller123 wrote: oh man I am ready for the shit storm from certain posters, all in all I think its a pretty reasonable power ranking after some very inconsistent results from top players that makes it very hard to get a clear picture of who is on top currently
Apparently Dave4 is in ban land, so I guess that narrows the field.
I think this time it would have been more appropriate to put two #2-s or something like this in the ranking and simply avoiding to give out the #1 spot to anyone, since no one is deserved to be #1 this month, and nobody is playing like one. In my eyes #1-4 is all at the same level right now, with more than one questionable losses already this year.
Overall I think it's a very fair power rank. Not shocked by any ranking, I would simply switch around a few players. The disparity in results this months makes it impossible to designate a clear cut #1 indeed.
Innovation and soO at 5th and 6th are very interesting. You would think at first glance that the 2 winners of the 2 biggest tournaments of last month would be almost locked to make top 3. But Inno bombed Katowice and soO didn't qualify for WESG. The kicker? Both got clapped in GSL Ro16, hence no top 4 for them.I guess Inno won the more recent one so he gets the upper hand over soO.
Stats and Serral at 4th and 3rd are the biggest question mark of this ranking. Blizzcon 2018 finalists. Both lost in the finale of either Katowice or WESG.Both had borderline shocking upset loss in recent WCS/GSL tournaments. I think a GSL Ro32 exit against MC and Cure looks worse than dropping 2 series to Heromarine and Ptitdrogo but still making the WCS playoffs, so no complaint here either.
Maru and Dark at 2nd and 1st is the most arguable decision. To me, Maru is still first. Both players are polar opposite in their results and consistency as the writers showed. Maru can look like Skynet in one series and a 5300 MMR NA terran player the next day. Dark is always really good, which is so hard to be in Starcraft, but he's rarely, if ever, amazing (Stats is similar in that regard). So the question is, do you value consistency more than peak ability. I value the later but that is just my subjective opinion. In 3 days we will know who's in the GSL finals and it will probably settle the argument. I think Maru will crush Trap and Dark will narrowly lose to Classic, but I'm rooting for a TvZ final for spectacle's sake.
I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
On April 03 2019 18:03 Charoisaur wrote: I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
If bombing out means making top3 and losing to the eventual winner while still taking home 20k USD, I wish Maru would bomb out of all his tournament.
On April 03 2019 18:03 Charoisaur wrote: I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
If bombing out means making top3 and losing to the eventual winner while still taking home 20k USD, I wish Maru would bomb out of all his tournament.
I mean, he lost to the first decent opponent he faced
Once again, I don't feel this power ranking has the best timing, I'd have at least waited five days for Code S' semifinals and WCS Winter's offline phase to be played.
Dark can be first out of his consistency while Maru is placed too high; soO went back to sixth place with just two losses, I still think Serral should have been first in the previous Power Ranking.
On April 03 2019 18:03 Charoisaur wrote: I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
If bombing out means making top3 and losing to the eventual winner while still taking home 20k USD, I wish Maru would bomb out of all his tournament.
I mean, he lost to the first decent opponent he faced
Same could be said of Serral and Dark at WeSG. And Neeb is a decent opponent imo
On April 03 2019 18:03 Charoisaur wrote: I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
If bombing out means making top3 and losing to the eventual winner while still taking home 20k USD, I wish Maru would bomb out of all his tournament.
I mean, he lost to the first decent opponent he faced
Same could be said of Serral and Dark at WeSG. And Neeb is a decent opponent imo
And I don't think either Serral or Dark's performances at WESG were impressive. Neeb is good, true - I forgot about him. Still I don't think IEM Katowice group stage loss - WESG win vs Neeb and GSL ro4 justify a 2nd place ranking.
On April 03 2019 18:03 Charoisaur wrote: I think Inno and soO deserve to be higher considering they won the only big tournaments right now. Maru at #2 is a bit confusing on the other hand considering he bombed out at IEM and WESG. Good to see Dark at the top.
If bombing out means making top3 and losing to the eventual winner while still taking home 20k USD, I wish Maru would bomb out of all his tournament.
I mean, he lost to the first decent opponent he faced
Same could be said of Serral and Dark at WeSG. And Neeb is a decent opponent imo
And I don't think either Serral or Dark's performances at WESG were impressive. Neeb is good, true - I forgot about him. Still I don't think IEM Katowice group stage loss - WESG win vs Neeb and GSL ro4 justify a 2nd place ranking.
Fair enough. But you could something similar about anyone else if they got 2nd as well. INno had lacking results in IEM and GSL, soO in GSL, Serral in IEM/WCS etc
Maru as top2? That's a bit surprising to me, but the difficulty of this power rank lies in the fact that everybody got mixed results at the top iirc. All terrans got trashed at IEM, Serral did relatively bad, soO won but lost in GSL, INno and Maru did decent at WESG with INno doing better but then losing in GSL, Dark doing relatively bad at WESG but decent at IEM and good in GSL. It's quite a mindfuck actually to make a Power Rank given all his results, so I can't say too much about it. However even as a Maru fan I would not expect him to be that high. I guess his GSL dismantle of Dear weighed in the balance.
If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
On April 03 2019 20:53 travis wrote: If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
Of course GSL is weighted so heavily. WCS is laughably inferior in comparison. I dont think it should be rated at all. Even the GSL super tournament and Olimoleagues are vastly superior...
On April 03 2019 20:53 travis wrote: If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
Well losing to soO in IEM in a close 2-3 is a thing. Losing a close finals to INno 3-4 is something.
But then losing to both HeroMarine and Reynor? Imo that's a warning sign, and it's enough for him to be out of the top 2. I'd argue top 3 is already generous when there are probably 7-8 top kor that would do fine vs both these players right now, but since he had a monstrous 2018 they give him benefit of the doubt, as they do with Maru generous top 2.
On April 03 2019 20:08 Poopi wrote: Maru as top2? That's a bit surprising to me, but the difficulty of this power rank lies in the fact that everybody got mixed results at the top iirc. All terrans got trashed at IEM, Serral did relatively bad, soO won but lost in GSL, INno and Maru did decent at WESG with INno doing better but then losing in GSL, Dark doing relatively bad at WESG but decent at IEM and good in GSL. It's quite a mindfuck actually to make a Power Rank given all his results, so I can't say too much about it. However even as a Maru fan I would not expect him to be that high. I guess his GSL dismantle of Dear weighed in the balance.
Technically Maru's poor performance at IEM happened in feb, not march, so that couldve played a role
If we go by weighing march the heaviest, I think Maru at No. 2 is fine. His only weakness could be his TvT, as he got rekt by innovation and dropped his gsl series to bunny. I think the only TvT he won in march was against special in wesg. He mightve went 1-2 in TvT in march which is pretty bad
on the other hand, his TvZ is at the very least great (hasnt been really put to the test in march though, as the best player he beat was probably ragnarok), and his TvP is phenomenal, completely dismantling players like Neeb, hero, and Dear (world's best PvT at the moment)
On April 03 2019 20:53 travis wrote: If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
that's how it should be. If you want to be considered the best you need to consistently compete against the best. And I don't know which results you're looking at at which Serral is "still obviously first".
On April 03 2019 20:53 travis wrote: If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
What results? He has one win against a top 10 player (according to this list) so far this year. That win being 3-1 Dark at WeSG.
IEM ro8 isn't enough to be given #1, especially when he didn't beat anyone even top 10 to get there. Second at WeSG is okay I guess but he still lost 2/3 matches I would consider against top opponents (Neeb/INno).
Even against other foreigners he's lost to Neeb, Reynor, and HeroMarine in WeSG/WCS. If none of those are even top 10 in what world does Serral have the results to be #1.
On April 03 2019 19:20 Xain0n wrote: Once again, I don't feel this power ranking has the best timing, I'd have at least waited five days for Code S' semifinals and WCS Winter's offline phase to be played.
Dark can be first out of his consistency while Maru is placed too high; soO went back to sixth place with just two losses, I still think Serral should have been first in the previous Power Ranking.
Well, keep in mind that after the next event comes next, and then one after that etc. and suddently we're in the middle of the month - we have to make the cut somewhere.
It's great though that we get a power rank a month now! Those are always great read, and fun to talk about in between tournaments. Dark only lost 3-4 and it could have gone the other way so it's fine, it's not like Classic is a random.
I think there is nothing to argue about this PR apart from Maru being 2nd. Even I can see that his one win vs Dear isn't enough to let him climb from 5th to 2nd while he didn't look convincing at all in GSL Group Stage and WESG. I think we have to wait for Maru vs Trap before ranking him that high.
If you're gonna complain about TL's ranking, at least offer some reasoning and an alternative player more deserving of the spot. Saying things like "Dark won nothing and he's first" or "Maru bombed WESG and he's second?, well yeah you might have a point, but who's first and second then? Every spot can be argued.
I would say in a land where no one person is shining over the rest, Maru appears to be the best candidate for #1. His results have been good and he is still killing it in the GSL. His games versus Dear showed how amazing his mechanics still are and he looked scary good. His fear level is off the charts right now.
On April 04 2019 00:37 BisuDagger wrote: I would say in a land where no one person is shining over the rest, Maru appears to be the best candidate for #1. His results have been good and he is still killing it in the GSL. His games versus Dear showed how amazing his mechanics still are and he looked scary good. His fear level is off the charts right now.
Maru flopped at IEM and was not nearly strong enough to make a claim for #1 at any point of the month until he played against Dear. But I don't think anyone deserves to occupy the #1 spot. Looking at the top 5 I already felt that all of them were too high, even though nobody outperformed them.
On April 03 2019 20:53 travis wrote: If you look at results Serral should still obviously first. If GSL is weightedly so heavily that getting Ro4 makes you fly up into the top 2, it's basically going to be impossible for Serral to ever get first if there are top tier koreans doing consistently well in GSL.
Well losing to soO in IEM in a close 2-3 is a thing. Losing a close finals to INno 3-4 is something.
But then losing to both HeroMarine and Reynor? Imo that's a warning sign, and it's enough for him to be out of the top 2. I'd argue top 3 is already generous when there are probably 7-8 top kor that would do fine vs both these players right now, but since he had a monstrous 2018 they give him benefit of the doubt, as they do with Maru generous top 2.
I think it's understandable for Serral not to be first on this power ranking(less so for the previous power ranking and way less for the one before that; if Serral doesn't start winning international tournaments again, he will never get a first place on the ranking), finishing third in WCS Winter's groupstage wasn't a good result by any means; the argument of "he lost to X and Y", however, appears invalid to me, Reynor is(arguably?) better than Leenock and Heromarime is without a doubt better than Meomaika, who Maru lost 2-0 to(we could easily find 50 players who could beat Meomaika on a regular basis).
Serral did better than Maru at both IEM and WESG and was three positions ahead of him in March's power ranking, I don't see how reaching the semifinals of Code S makes up for this. Both Dark(fine) and Maru(meh) went up three spots in the ladder because of the semifinals, so I find extremely confusing to see Classic ahead of Trap given that the former just entered the power ranking while the latter held the tenth spot last month; the results of today have to be ignored for obvious reasons.
I understand a cut has to be made, I would have waited four/five days, the 7th/8th of April is just after its first week and, while retaining the results of Code S finals and Super Tournament for May's PR, you could make use of the insightful Code S semifinals and WCS Winter finals for this power ranking(Trap vs Maru and Classic vs Dark seem quite important for this ladder, as well as the answer to the question of Serral's ability of winning one tournament again).
On April 04 2019 00:37 BisuDagger wrote: I would say in a land where no one person is shining over the rest, Maru appears to be the best candidate for #1. His results have been good and he is still killing it in the GSL. His games versus Dear showed how amazing his mechanics still are and he looked scary good. His fear level is off the charts right now.
I would say Maru is actually, just based off results, the weakest to argue for a top 2 spot. He did not even get out of group stages at IEM, he didn't even win the "Group of Life" that he was in in GSL, and lost to the first korean he faced in WESG.
I mean power ranking should essentially be "if you had to bet all your money on one player winning any given tournament, who would you bet it on"?
Mine is definitely Serral but w/e. It's clear Serral literally has no way to top the power rank other than moving to korea and crushing GSL, or winning international tournaments over and over and over never faltering because it doesn't even make a positive impact (only hurts him somehow) when he gets a 2nd place instead of a first. Whereas a Maru can do it by winning a single GSL match and ignoring everything else that has happened for the last 2 months.
On April 04 2019 02:09 travis wrote: I mean power ranking should essentially be "if you had to bet all your money on one player winning any given tournament, who would you bet it on"?
Mine is definitely Serral but w/e. It's clear Serral literally has no way to top the power rank other than moving to korea and crushing GSL, or winning international tournaments over and over and over never faltering because it doesn't even make a positive impact (only hurts him somehow) when he gets a 2nd place instead of a first. Whereas a Maru can do it by winning a single GSL match and ignoring everything else that has happened for the last 2 months.
In GSL: I'd bet all my money on Maru over Serral in the finals.
In all non-GSLs: I'd bet all my money on Serral over Maru.
Maru losing outside of GSL is a meme at this point.
In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
On April 04 2019 02:09 travis wrote: I mean power ranking should essentially be "if you had to bet all your money on one player winning any given tournament, who would you bet it on"?
I disagree with that actually. I think Power Ranking is just about which player looks the strongest at the moment and sometimes the player that looks the strongest wouldn't be the player I'd bet on due to things like a history of choking at critical moments, being inconsistent, other player having a greater legacy etc. If I had to bet all my money on one player to win the next tournament that comes up I think it would actually be Stats due to how insane he looked at Katowice up until the finals and his history of being the most consistent player in LotV but giving the #1 spot to a player who lost in the GSL ro32 would definitely be weird.
On April 04 2019 02:09 travis wrote: I mean power ranking should essentially be "if you had to bet all your money on one player winning any given tournament, who would you bet it on"?
Mine is definitely Serral but w/e. It's clear Serral literally has no way to top the power rank other than moving to korea and crushing GSL, or winning international tournaments over and over and over never faltering because it doesn't even make a positive impact (only hurts him somehow) when he gets a 2nd place instead of a first. Whereas a Maru can do it by winning a single GSL match and ignoring everything else that has happened for the last 2 months.
In GSL: I'd bet all my money on Maru over Serral in the finals.
In all non-GSLs: I'd bet all my money on Serral over Maru.
Maru losing outside of GSL is a meme at this point.
Fairly irresponsible bankroll management there, but who am I to judge.
Also at this point i'm going full con-theo mode, the writers just purposefully set themselves up to for this, by releasing the PR with Dark first, hours before his semifinals, just to generate controversy :D
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Maru's going to win this GSL (and every consecutive GSL until they make a no Maru allowed korean league) and we're going to feel like idiots for ever doubting the based manlet of triumph
On April 04 2019 00:46 Elentos wrote: But I don't think anyone deserves to occupy the #1 spot. Looking at the top 5 I already felt that all of them were too high, even though nobody outperformed them.
They should have made a power rank where nobody was ranked first for extra controversy =P. If there were ever a time to do it, it would be now.
I hope Trap wins this GSL just to throw everything farther into uncertainty.
On April 04 2019 07:40 IshinShishi wrote: Dark in top 1 is too weird
You mean it's out of place to rank him first now? Or that the very idea of Dark being #1 seems weird? He definitely was the best player in the world in 2016.
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
Honestly, he hasn't shown very much TvZ but of 12 games he played, he went 9-3, which suggests he's still in good TvZ form.
Edit: I'm only looking at games against Korean zerg because if you include winrate against non-koreans, they become a lot higher. I admit his series versus Scarlett didn't show that his TvZ was amazing but if you think about it, it was basically a 3-1 and Scarlett is no slouch ofc.
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
MeomaikA games: Game#1 - Maru went for a drop while MeomaikA went for the baneling bust. The armies missed each other, MeomaikA flooded Maru's natural while having enough lings to not allow a safe drop. If he knew who MeomaikA is he wouldn't do the drop so carelessly Game#2 - BO loss with Maru ignoring/forgetting full wall of main.
I don't think these games are any special prove that his TvZ is not in a good form, apart from Bly I don't know about anyone this aggressive, maybe RO16 Scarlett
Not to mention that Scarlett can go toe to toe with the best Terrans, this just undermines her achievements more than Maru's TvZ
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
MeomaikA games: Game#1 - Maru went for a drop while MeomaikA went for the baneling bust. The armies missed each other, MeomaikA flooded Maru's natural while having enough lings to not allow a safe drop. If he knew who MeomaikA is he wouldn't do the drop so carelessly Game#2 - BO loss with Maru ignoring/forgetting full wall of main.
I don't think these games are any special prove that his TvZ is not in a good form, apart from Bly I don't know about anyone this aggressive, maybe RO16 Scarlett
Not to mention that Scarlett can go toe to toe with the best Terrans, this just undermines her achievements more than Maru's TvZ
Maru definitely knows who Meomaika is since they played each other a lot on the ladder.
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On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
MeomaikA games: Game#1 - Maru went for a drop while MeomaikA went for the baneling bust. The armies missed each other, MeomaikA flooded Maru's natural while having enough lings to not allow a safe drop. If he knew who MeomaikA is he wouldn't do the drop so carelessly Game#2 - BO loss with Maru ignoring/forgetting full wall of main.
I don't think these games are any special prove that his TvZ is not in a good form, apart from Bly I don't know about anyone this aggressive, maybe RO16 Scarlett
Not to mention that Scarlett can go toe to toe with the best Terrans, this just undermines her achievements more than Maru's TvZ
Maru definitely knows who Meomaika is since they played each other a lot on the ladder.
Then the games don't make any sense. He could have forgotten the addon, but the move-out in G1 doesn't make any sense at all if I accept the description of MeomaikA.
On April 04 2019 22:30 Greenei wrote: Seems to me you are way harder on Serral than you are on Dark.
Most of the time Dark is competing in more stacked tournaments than Serral, so even if this is true, is it especially wrong?
On April 03 2019 17:24 midhigh wrote: I think this time it would have been more appropriate to put two #2-s or something like this in the ranking and simply avoiding to give out the #1 spot to anyone, since no one is deserved to be #1 this month, and nobody is playing like one. In my eyes #1-4 is all at the same level right now, with more than one questionable losses already this year.
then it's not a power rank, it's just a vague tier list
people need to realize power ranks are for fun and to spark debate. it's not science, and it's not a crime to just throw someone in a certain spot and defend it with subjective analysis. no one is going to fucking die if a power rank is "wrong"
So it seems that Code S Maru managed to prove his doubters wrong once again. It's puzzling how dominant he looks season after season of GSL, yet he's so inconsistent in international tournaments. Is it the format? Is it the tailored builds for the opponent? The jet lag meme?
In any case, he made Trap look like he never belonged in the ro4. I think no matter what the final result, this 4-0 cements his second place in the ranking. As for Classic, his narrow win over Dark might propel him to top 5, I think it's a really close call between him Inno and soO at the moment.
Now as much as I was impressed by Classic's run, I actually think Maru will repeat today's performance and offer us a good old 4-0 boring final. His TvP is mindboggling, give him one week to prepare for his opponent and we might witness the first 4 consecutive time code S winner.
On April 04 2019 04:12 Charoisaur wrote: In a head-to-head I'd favor Maru everytime due to Serral's weak ZvT but I think Serral has overall been the better player this year so looking at head-to-head between 2 players only isn't a very good way to go about it.
Maru's TvZ is on average better than Serral's ZvT; however, I'd bet on BlizzCon Serral over Code S S2 Maru every time. Serral played very few games against Terran during his period of dominance(excluding HSC which was played on another patch), but he looked deadly at GSL vs the World; also, Maru's TvZ was shaky in 2019, Serral might have won if they faced at WESG.
Tbh, INnoVation's TvZ is pretty bad compared to Maru's. His winrate against Koreans offline from 2018 to now is barely 50% and it doesn't seem to have gotten much better (it's 38% so far this year, and if you count his games against Serral, it would still only be 48%). I think people believe his TvZ is stronger than it really is because he took a lot of sets off Rogue but I honestly think that Rogue (Solar maybe) is probably the most inconsistent top player in terms of the quality of his play. That said, INnoVation's TvT has been looking really strong. He outclassed Maru pretty badly at WESG.
Edit: I will admit, INnoVation's series against Serral showed that he can play TvZ very well but I honestly think Maru's TvZ is much stronger. INnoVation basically never beats Dark nowadays and Maru is probably the only terran who is favoured against Dark (no other terran is even close to being even with Dark). Maru's TvZ winrate in from 2018 to now is 70% (and 75% this year over 12 games), which is way higher than INnoVation's,
What evidence do we have that Maru's TvZ is godlike? Which top Zergs has he beaten recently?
The only notable TvZ I can remember Maru playing this year is against Dark at IEM–but Inno also played a very impressive TvZ at IEM, and then did it again at WESG. Not to mention Maru's appalling series against Scarlett, plus getting upset by MeomaikA, both of which seriously undermine his TvZ credentials in my eyes.
Maru at his peak plays a very scary TvZ, but I'm not seeing much evidence that he's anywhere near his peak right now.
MeomaikA games: Game#1 - Maru went for a drop while MeomaikA went for the baneling bust. The armies missed each other, MeomaikA flooded Maru's natural while having enough lings to not allow a safe drop. If he knew who MeomaikA is he wouldn't do the drop so carelessly Game#2 - BO loss with Maru ignoring/forgetting full wall of main.
I don't think these games are any special prove that his TvZ is not in a good form, apart from Bly I don't know about anyone this aggressive, maybe RO16 Scarlett
Not to mention that Scarlett can go toe to toe with the best Terrans, this just undermines her achievements more than Maru's TvZ
Maru definitely knows who Meomaika is since they played each other a lot on the ladder.
Then the games don't make any sense. He could have forgotten the addon, but the move-out in G1 doesn't make any sense at all if I accept the description of MeomaikA.
On April 04 2019 22:30 Greenei wrote: Seems to me you are way harder on Serral than you are on Dark.
Most of the time Dark is competing in more stacked tournaments than Serral, so even if this is true, is it especially wrong?
Meo did cancel his roach warren game 1 (which Maru saw) and lair (which Maru didn't see get canceled iirc), so he might have gotten mindgamed a bit. Also let's be honest, Maru doesn't play in the slightest careful against players he thinks are worse than he is.
The fun thing is that meomaika loss didn’t count but people point this as Maru sucking in TvZ, yet the Serral loss at IEM against INno was only because it didn’t count.
On April 06 2019 15:33 fastr wrote: So it seems that Code S Maru managed to prove his doubters wrong once again. It's puzzling how dominant he looks season after season of GSL, yet he's so inconsistent in international tournaments. Is it the format? Is it the tailored builds for the opponent? The jet lag meme?
Maru just isn't as good outside of korea. People really underrate the effects on travel in sc2. If you bring it up people just accuse you of making excuses for X player losing.
Some people aren't good travelers. It can be the change in time zone, sudden change of diet (this can be a big one for performance), or possibly just inexperience competing in that environment. Players like Taeja or foreigners are used to it, but someone like Maru who's used to proleague and starleagues might not be.
Although Maru isn't as good in weekenders as well. Personally I think that's less to do with preparation and more stamina or maybe his wrists. Because even his mechanics look better in starleagues than weekenders, it's not like he's winning GSL of build order wins.
On April 06 2019 15:33 fastr wrote: So it seems that Code S Maru managed to prove his doubters wrong once again. It's puzzling how dominant he looks season after season of GSL, yet he's so inconsistent in international tournaments. Is it the format? Is it the tailored builds for the opponent? The jet lag meme?
Maru just isn't as good outside of korea. People really underrate the effects on travel in sc2. If you bring it up people just accuse you of making excuses for X player losing.
Some people aren't good travelers. It can be the change in time zone, sudden change of diet (this can be a big one for performance), or possibly just inexperience competing in that environment. Players like Taeja or foreigners are used to it, but someone like Maru who's used to proleague and starleagues might not be.
Although Maru isn't as good in weekenders as well. Personally I think that's less to do with preparation and more stamina or maybe his wrists. Because even his mechanics look better in starleagues than weekenders, it's not like he's winning GSL of build order wins.
The fact is that if you're given a week to prepare for ONE specific opponent, there are many abusable details you can find in his play that might allow you to get ahead in the game. If you have a week to prepare 5 different opponents, there aren't as many such details you can find. Also, the more you prepare for someone the better reads you can make into their play and you get the feeling when can you be aggressive, when you should defend etc. The fact that Terrans (Maru) get so much more out of the preparation time is because Terran as a race has the highest skill ceiling, while also requiring much more skill to even be competitive at the pro level. The LotV even added to that, which made top tier Terrans like Maru, TY, InnoVation and Byun dominate, while all other Terrans kinda fell off the radar, because they just can't keep up with everyone else.
On April 06 2019 15:33 fastr wrote: So it seems that Code S Maru managed to prove his doubters wrong once again. It's puzzling how dominant he looks season after season of GSL, yet he's so inconsistent in international tournaments. Is it the format? Is it the tailored builds for the opponent? The jet lag meme?
Maru just isn't as good outside of korea. People really underrate the effects on travel in sc2. If you bring it up people just accuse you of making excuses for X player losing.
Some people aren't good travelers. It can be the change in time zone, sudden change of diet (this can be a big one for performance), or possibly just inexperience competing in that environment. Players like Taeja or foreigners are used to it, but someone like Maru who's used to proleague and starleagues might not be.
Although Maru isn't as good in weekenders as well. Personally I think that's less to do with preparation and more stamina or maybe his wrists. Because even his mechanics look better in starleagues than weekenders, it's not like he's winning GSL of build order wins.
There also have barely been any foreign tournaments that allow Koreans in LotV. There's really only IEM Katowice, WESG (which Maru won in 2017 and got second in 2016) and Blizzcon. Compare that to the number of foreign vs Korean tournaments in WoL and HotS.
On April 06 2019 15:33 fastr wrote: So it seems that Code S Maru managed to prove his doubters wrong once again. It's puzzling how dominant he looks season after season of GSL, yet he's so inconsistent in international tournaments. Is it the format? Is it the tailored builds for the opponent? The jet lag meme?
Maru just isn't as good outside of korea. People really underrate the effects on travel in sc2. If you bring it up people just accuse you of making excuses for X player losing.
Some people aren't good travelers. It can be the change in time zone, sudden change of diet (this can be a big one for performance), or possibly just inexperience competing in that environment. Players like Taeja or foreigners are used to it, but someone like Maru who's used to proleague and starleagues might not be.
Although Maru isn't as good in weekenders as well. Personally I think that's less to do with preparation and more stamina or maybe his wrists. Because even his mechanics look better in starleagues than weekenders, it's not like he's winning GSL of build order wins.
There also have barely been any foreign tournaments that allow Koreans in LotV. There's really only IEM Katowice, WESG (which Maru won in 2017 and got second in 2016) and Blizzcon. Compare that to the number of foreign vs Korean tournaments in WoL and HotS.
Those are already more than ten tournaments, Maru only won one; on the other hand there are enough korean weekenders(GSL vs The World included), Maru won none.
On April 16 2019 00:37 fishjie wrote: next power rank maru is gonna be back at #1, all is right with the world again. hopefully soo has a good showing at ST and can remain in top 10
Not necessarily. He would be #1 if a Power Ranking would be published now, there is at least Super Tournament before that.
Unless nothing crazy happens, I actually don't mind either Classic or Maru in #1 for May. While Code S is more significant than ST, Classic has the back-to-back ST wins plus the Code S finals. (Personally I think Classic deserves it more since Maru got knocked out in the first round)