While INnoVation’s bank account soared upwards after his WESG championship, his standing in the Power Rank has tanked severely due to his shoddy results ever since. On the positive side of things, Inno did manage to qualify for the next season of GSL Code S, albeit in a very shaky manner through the lower bracket of his group (he defeated MC, a recently returned Armani, and Creator).

About everything else has gone wrong for INnoVation. He failed to qualify for the Super Tournament after being eliminated by sOs and PartinG in the qualifiers, both of whom made a resurgence at the main event. Combined with his previous RO16 elimination from Code S, the lack of GSL results in 2019 so far has been a huge blow to INnoVation's reputation, despite his big WESG payday.

We’re trusting in our major tournament champions for a little while longer as soO remains in the Power Rank alongside INnoVation. However, the former teammates are on steady course to leave the top ten by the time the June edition of the Power Rank rolls around.

For soO, the only bright points since winning IEM Katowice have been his qualification for the upcoming season of GSL Code S (which was even shakier than INnoVation’s lackluster run) and his qualification for the previous GSL Super Tournament. Although soO fell immediately to Classic in the Super Tournament, at least losing to the eventual tournament champion was the 'best' way to suffer first round elimination.

With INnoVation and soO dropping rapidly down the ranks, Dear finds himself somehow moving up a single spot. April was very 'meh' for the veteran Protoss. His prior loss to Maru in Code S may have killed his PvT hot-streak, but Dear quickly got another streak going in the GSL Code S and Super Tournament qualifiers where he defeated FanTaSy, KeeN, and aLive on his way to dual qualification.

However, he was quickly eliminated from the Super Tournament in a 1-3 loss to Zest, and he put in some mixed performances as Newbee's ace player in the two Chinese team tournaments. Notably, he showed weakness in PvP, getting sniped by Chinese Protoss Sakura/TATP while also dropping games to both Zest and herO. If Dear continues to to be so unbalanced in his match-ups, then he might be doomed to only advance as far as his PvT takes him.

Trap's shocking semifinal run in the first season of the GSL Code S was a much needed breath of fresh air for both the JAGW player and the Code S title picture, but he was unable to follow it with an appearance in the Super Tournament. It felt like a missed opportunity—the level of play in some of the matches seemed like that of the lower rounds of Code S, and a lucky bracket could have seen Trap make a deep run.

Still, Trap was impressive in online tournaments, placing first in two OlimoLeague Weeklies over the likes of TY, Zest, herO, Leenock and a handful of other GSL regulars. While online tournaments aren't as meaningful as the offline majors, at least Trap used online competition to earn some benefit of the doubt, unlike many other players where we have to go largely on reputation and faith.

Four months into 2019, Serral has already suffered three major tournament losses that were decided by a single game—2-3 to soO at IEM Katowice (RO8), 3-4 to INnoVation at WESG (finals), and in April, 3-4 to Reynor at WCS Winter Europe (finals). While some might consider this to be a mere unlucky streak, it's a bit concerning when you consider how clutch Serral was in 2018.

Serral enjoyed plenty of stomps in 2018, but it was also a year where he came from 2-3 behind against Stats to win GSL vs. The World, and a year where he won WCS Montreal by taking three full-set ZvZ's series in a row. Reynor actually had Serral dead to rights in the WCS Montreal finals, but Serral ended up stealing the trophy after winning the single most ridiculous comeback game in WCS Circuit history in game six. While the overall quality of Serral's play in 2019 suggests he hasn't declined much, one has to wonder if he's lost an edge—be it intimidation, series planning, or some other quality—that allowed him to force victories in 2018.

GuMiho continues his 2019 Power Rank roller-coaster ride, soaring all the way to #5 after being unranked in the previous month. In March, GuMiho looked outmatched against the GSL's elite players when he went 0-4 against TY and soO in his Code S RO16 group. In April, he looked like a member of the elite himself as he meched down Dark and Stats on his way to the Super Tournament finals.

The Super Tournament final against Classic was a neat encapsulation of the best and worst of GuMiho—his build orders and harassment put him in position to take an early series lead, but instead he blew two enormous in-game leads when Classic crushed him in key battles.

GuMiho will probably stick around the PR for at least another month this time around, as he typically manages to get through to the Code S RO16. But would we be shocked if he dropped out after losing in his RO32 group? Not particularly—that would just be life as usual for one of StarCraft II's most chaotic and entertaining players.

Stats prompted an interesting dilemma for TLnet’s writing staff last month. How were we weigh Stats complete inactivity (literally) against everyone else’s underwhelming results?

After a month's break from Korean StarCraft (going 0-2 in the Round of 32 of Code S will do these things), Stats played what very well could have been the best series of the Super Tournament against Maru in the tournament’s opening tilt. Game four in particular is being lauded for its frenetic pace and back and forth action, but the entire affair served to remind us of just how good Stats is. He’s remains one of, if not the best, Protoss in the world, though being swept by GuMiho in the very next match does tarnish that claim a bit.

Regardless of how his Super Tournament came to an end, Stats has once more proven he belongs among the elite. He may have had a rare failure in last season’s Code S, but he’s one of two Koreans who’ve been able to routinely defeat Maru (the other being sOs) and one of the few who has a chance to dethrone the four time champion in this next season.

Last month, we saw Dark at his best, being the only Korean player with the consistency to earn a high placement at all three majors (Code S, WESG, IEM). This month, we saw Dark at his worst.

Dark's Code S semifinal loss summed up why we call him a title contender and choker at the same time. He looked to be the superior player against Classic. His multitasking had Classic grasping at thin air. His macro made Classic leery of playing the long game. His micro was too much for Classic’s old-hands. But somehow, Dark was still outwitted just enough times by proxies and timings to lose in a seven game series.

The Super Tournament offered Dark a chance to make up a chance for his latest failure, but he only ended up suffering an even more embarrassing defeat. Dark’s RO16 series against GuMiho was brutally long, with players each winning a pair of drawn out macro games. GuMiho seemed to have all but gifted Dark a path to the quarterfinals after inexplicably giving up his third Command Center during a Ravager-Ling all-in, but Dark gifted the series right back by playing his lead far too passively.

Dark and his fans must once again look at the upcoming season of Code S with both hope and dread, and wonder what another playoff loss would mean for his legacy.

Classic’s year started out on a grim note, with the specter of military service manifesting quite viscerally by denying his participation at IEM Katowice. However, the veteran Protoss responded to the setback by setting his laser-like focus on winning glory in Korea.

His first major obstacle of the month was his old nemesis Dark in the Code S semifinals. Classic's insolent ex-teammate had gotten the better of him in many past meetings, but Classic managed to overcome Dark with a combination of great preparation and Dark’s misplaced faith in neural parasite. Classic was just as diligent in preparing against his finals opponent Maru, even bringing out a proxy tempest in his long list of cunning builds. Despite Classic’s best efforts, Maru was not as easily duped as Classic's previous opponents, and held out to take a 4-2 victory.

While Maru bowed out of the Super Tournament early in his 'traditional' post-Code S malaise, Classic seemed even more intent on winning a title after his Code S finals loss. He vanquished soO and sOs with ease, and then took out Patience 3-2 in the semifinals. In the finals, Classic proved that it was Maru—not Terran—that was his problem, crushing GuMiho 4-1 to win the championship.

While this will probably be Classic’s last pro gaming year, he's given us reason to believe that Super Tournament 1 won't be the grand finale.

To say that we were 'worried' about Maru at the start of the year would be an understatement. A group stage exit at IEM Katowice, 2nd place advancement in the Code S Ro16, and 3rd place WESG: not the kind of results we expected from last year’s triple Code S champion.

Yet, in Korea's most prestigious competition, Maru returned to magnificent form. A Code S semifinal upset to Trap seemed to be on the cards after Maru's prior struggles (especially given the nature of team kills), but he made the match seem like a formality by speed-running Trap in around forty minutes on his way to the finals.

The final was a much closer affair—while Maru smashed Classic with strong two-base timings, Classic responded by hitting Maru with devastating cheeses. But with the series tied up 2-2 Maru, closed the series out with two decisive victories. On King's Cove, Maru managed to both turtle and stay active, slowly building his advantage until he could finish Classic off with Battlecruisers. Then, on the deciding map of Year Zero, Maru deflected a desperate DT rush to clinch his fourth consecutive Code S title.

Despite an early elimination at the hands of Stats in the GSL Super Tournament a few days later, there Maru managed to look frightening even in his defeat. His attempts to mech vs Protoss seemed like more than a curiosity, with his match on Year Zero a sure candidate for best game of the year.

With such strong performances, a match-up innovation, and historic Code S achievement, Maru has vindicated himself once more as the best in the world.