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Hi guys,
A remarkable thing has just happened that I think might have snuck under the radar: Europe is 1, 2, and 3 on Aligulac rankings.
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike this year. Only 3 years ago it seemed unfathomable that something like this could happen.
Slowly but surely foreigners have chipped away at the Korean monopoly. Neeb of course was the first to legitimately challenge for one of the top rankings over an extended time, before Serral rose to his throne and began a streak that has been unmatched by any other in sc2. His three years in the top 2 of ratings is unparalled, and along with his record breaking haul of premier tournament wins, he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2.
The rise of Serral not only put the Koreans on notice; he has simultaneously dragged the competition in Europe up to meet him. The European beast has grown three heads - a triumvirate of Serral, Reynor and Clem is without doubt the strongest lineup foreign sc2 has ever boasted at a single point in time.
And with the recent Dreamhack results that saw Maru, Trap, TY and others bow out unceremoniously, it finally feels like we can say Korea is no longer the number 1 region.
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On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Hi guys,
A remarkable thing has just happened that I think might have snuck under the radar: Europe is 1, 2, and 3 on Aligulac rankings.
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike this year. Only 3 years ago it seemed unfathomable that something like this could happen.
Slowly but surely foreigners have chipped away at the Korean monopoly. Neeb of course was the first to legitimately challenge for one of the top rankings over an extended time, before Serral rose to his throne and began a streak that has been unmatched by any other in sc2. His three years in the top 2 of ratings is unparalled, and along with his record breaking haul of premier tournament wins, he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2.
The rise of Serral not only put the Koreans on notice; he has simultaneously dragged the competition in Europe up to meet him. The European beast has grown three heads - a triumvirate of Serral, Reynor and Clem is without doubt the strongest lineup foreign sc2 has ever boasted at a single point in time.
And with the recent Dreamhack results that saw Maru, Trap, TY and others bow out unceremoniously, it finally feels like we can say Korea is no longer the number 1 region.
I m a foreigner fanboy myselfe. As shown in my signature as well. ( I just can t find myselve rooting for a single Korean player for super long. I love Trap or Solar or Cure and many others, but not with the same passion as I root for those 3 boys down there in my signature) 
But when you re looking at the depths of the region, it s still clear, that Korea is No1 region. On the top level on a good day anyone can beat anyone. It s still a realy volatile game. And as the most important cross region event so far in 2020 (Katowice) has shown, there are still way more good Koreans than foreigners.
Aligulac has to be taken with a grain of salt anyways, simply because it s not realy good to compare players from different player pools. Within EU? It s great. Within Korea? Also good. But from Korea to EU there are just not enough games in the database to have a good grasp for the overall strength. I personally would estimate, that Korean and Chinese Players are about 200-300 points better, compared to players with the same rating from EU. I don t have anything to back that up, though, it s 100% gut feeling 
TL:DR don t read to much into this. Luckily we have way more cross regional tournaments in the next 3-4 month with TSL, ASUS ROG, Last Chance and Kato 2021 to see how things go.
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The gap is closing, but yeah too early to say. Feel people are overreacting a bit too much to the last season finals where Koreans obviously didnt have a good showing. Apart from the top-3, Korea still has the better players overall looking at the top-10 of each region and I dont see that changing anytime soon. Just hope next year there will be some offline tournaments returning where we can really judge how the regions match up against each other.
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Northern Ireland24909 Posts
It’s a shame it’s borderline impossible to measure ratings given the structure of the SC2 scene, between regional issues and tournament prestige etc. Still, Aligulac is great.
On current shape and trajectory I think Serral or Reynor could conceivably win Code S, along with quite a few Koreans.
I’m not sure Clem can just yet, but I’d definitely put him in the next bracket down with the guys who can make a solid Ro8/Ro4 run that doesn’t need tons of bracket luck.
Rest of foreign land I would see aspiring to top 8 if they’re having a really, really good tournament so I don’t think the overall gap has been closed so much as Clem has just joined the other foreign outliers in gapping the rest.
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On November 19 2020 22:27 dbRic1203 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Hi guys,
A remarkable thing has just happened that I think might have snuck under the radar: Europe is 1, 2, and 3 on Aligulac rankings.
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike this year. Only 3 years ago it seemed unfathomable that something like this could happen.
Slowly but surely foreigners have chipped away at the Korean monopoly. Neeb of course was the first to legitimately challenge for one of the top rankings over an extended time, before Serral rose to his throne and began a streak that has been unmatched by any other in sc2. His three years in the top 2 of ratings is unparalled, and along with his record breaking haul of premier tournament wins, he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2.
The rise of Serral not only put the Koreans on notice; he has simultaneously dragged the competition in Europe up to meet him. The European beast has grown three heads - a triumvirate of Serral, Reynor and Clem is without doubt the strongest lineup foreign sc2 has ever boasted at a single point in time.
And with the recent Dreamhack results that saw Maru, Trap, TY and others bow out unceremoniously, it finally feels like we can say Korea is no longer the number 1 region. I m a foreigner fanboy myselfe. As shown in my signature as well. ( I just can t find myselve rooting for a single Korean player for super long. I love Trap or Solar or Cure and many others, but not with the same passion as I root for those 3 boys down there in my signature) But when you re looking at the depths of the region, it s still clear, that Korea is No1 region. On the top level on a good day anyone can beat anyone. It s still a realy volatile game. And as the most important cross region event so far in 2020 (Katowice) has shown, there are still way more good Koreans than foreigners. Aligulac has to be taken with a grain of salt anyways, simply because it s not realy good to compare players from different player pools. Within EU? It s great. Within Korea? Also good. But from Korea to EU there are just not enough games in the database to have a good grasp for the overall strength. I personally would estimate, that Korean and Chinese Players are about 200-300 points better, compared to players with the same rating from EU. I don t have anything to back that up, though, it s 100% gut feeling TL:DR don t read to much into this. Luckily we have way more cross regional tournaments in the next 3-4 month with TSL, ASUS ROG, Last Chance and Kato 2021 to see how things go.
I think 100-150 points for KR vs EU is fairer. Maybe even slightly higher but certainly not 300, that would place all of Maru, Stats, Trap, and TY above Serral and Reynor which just isn't reasonable. I definitely don't think Chinese players are very underrated. Add 200 points to TIME and you have him at roughly the same level as Showtime... Doesn't seem right at all. Since he plays a lot of Korean events (same with Special), his rating level should be closer to that of Koreans though
As a rule of thumb, you can tell by how ratings shift after international events. If players from one reason generally lost rating, it means they were probably overrated compared to the average, if they gained rating, they were underrated. Korean players, on average, certainly tend to gain rating from season finals and whatnot
Oh, and another example is Special who has more of a Korean region rating and tends to gain a lot of rating points when playing LatAm events
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On November 19 2020 23:07 WombaT wrote:
It’s a shame it’s borderline impossible to measure ratings given the structure of the SC2 scene, between regional issues and tournament prestige etc. Still, Aligulac is great.
On current shape and trajectory I think Serral or Reynor could conceivably win Code S, along with quite a few Koreans.
I’m not sure Clem can just yet, but I’d definitely put him in the next bracket down with the guys who can make a solid Ro8/Ro4 run that doesn’t need tons of bracket luck.
Rest of foreign land I would see aspiring to top 8 if they’re having a really, really good tournament so I don’t think the overall gap has been closed so much as Clem has just joined the other foreign outliers in gapping the rest.
Yeah, that summs it up pretty well I think.
Championchip contenders:
Maru, Serral, Reynor, TY, Trap
Ro4 contenders:
Stats, Inno, Rogue, Cure, Zest, Clem
Ro8 contenders:
Parting, Byun, Solar, Dream, DRG, Astrea, Neeb, Special, Armani, Heromarine, Showtime, Time
Ro16 contenders:
Zoun, Teaja, sOs, Hurricane, Ragnarok, Bunny, Scarlett, Patience, Elazer, Lambo, uThermal, Nice, Creator
Obviously in the very Top its still pretty Korean heavy and is not going to change anytime soon. Everything below those I mentioned is pretty foreigner heavy, as there are just not more Korean Pros left.
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On November 20 2020 01:16 dbRic1203 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2020 23:07 WombaT wrote:
It’s a shame it’s borderline impossible to measure ratings given the structure of the SC2 scene, between regional issues and tournament prestige etc. Still, Aligulac is great.
On current shape and trajectory I think Serral or Reynor could conceivably win Code S, along with quite a few Koreans.
I’m not sure Clem can just yet, but I’d definitely put him in the next bracket down with the guys who can make a solid Ro8/Ro4 run that doesn’t need tons of bracket luck.
Rest of foreign land I would see aspiring to top 8 if they’re having a really, really good tournament so I don’t think the overall gap has been closed so much as Clem has just joined the other foreign outliers in gapping the rest. Yeah, that sums it up pretty well I think. Championship contenders: Maru, Serral, Reynor, TY, Trap Ro4 contenders: Stats, Inno, Rogue, Cure, Zest, Clem Ro8 contenders: Parting, Byun, Solar, Dream, DRG, Astrea, Neeb, Special, Armani, Heromarine, Showtime, Time Ro16 contenders: Zoun, Taeja, sOs, Hurricane, Ragnarok, Bunny, Scarlett, Patience, Elazer, Lambo, uThermal, Nice, Creator Obviously in the very Top its still pretty Korean heavy and is not going to change anytime soon. Everything below those I mentioned is pretty foreigner heavy, as there are just not more Korean Pros left.
Fun fact, Neeb already made Code S Ro4 and Reynor made it to 16 in a time when he was nowhere close to championship contender. Scarlett also made it to one Ro8 I think (last year or this year?)
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another serral fan boy post lol.
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Northern Ireland24909 Posts
On November 20 2020 01:37 AzAlexZ wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2020 01:16 dbRic1203 wrote:On November 19 2020 23:07 WombaT wrote:
It’s a shame it’s borderline impossible to measure ratings given the structure of the SC2 scene, between regional issues and tournament prestige etc. Still, Aligulac is great.
On current shape and trajectory I think Serral or Reynor could conceivably win Code S, along with quite a few Koreans.
I’m not sure Clem can just yet, but I’d definitely put him in the next bracket down with the guys who can make a solid Ro8/Ro4 run that doesn’t need tons of bracket luck.
Rest of foreign land I would see aspiring to top 8 if they’re having a really, really good tournament so I don’t think the overall gap has been closed so much as Clem has just joined the other foreign outliers in gapping the rest. Yeah, that sums it up pretty well I think. Championship contenders: Maru, Serral, Reynor, TY, Trap Ro4 contenders: Stats, Inno, Rogue, Cure, Zest, Clem Ro8 contenders: Parting, Byun, Solar, Dream, DRG, Astrea, Neeb, Special, Armani, Heromarine, Showtime, Time Ro16 contenders: Zoun, Taeja, sOs, Hurricane, Ragnarok, Bunny, Scarlett, Patience, Elazer, Lambo, uThermal, Nice, Creator Obviously in the very Top its still pretty Korean heavy and is not going to change anytime soon. Everything below those I mentioned is pretty foreigner heavy, as there are just not more Korean Pros left. Fun fact, Neeb already made Code S Ro4 and Reynor made it to 16 in a time when he was nowhere close to championship contender. Scarlett also made it to one Ro8 I think (last year or this year?)
Well that they did, I don’t think many dispute Neeb was in better shape relative to the meta back then than he would be now.
Sure tiers are a rough eye-test kind of thing, I think they hold up pretty well though. A player can shoot above their tier, maybe two tiers above if they have a stellar tournament but generally they’ll perform to their tier.
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In this Thread: people don't understand how aligulac works, or how these ratings are self correcting.
You could give a 1000 Aligulac Rating lead to koreans when they start off, Serral would still have taken #1.
No Korean should be ahead of Serral result wise, none of them come close to Serral or Reynor for that matter.
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On November 20 2020 04:21 lostusername123 wrote:
In this Thread: people don't understand how aligulac works, or how these ratings are self correcting.
You could give a 1000 Aligulac Rating lead to koreans when they start off, Serral would still have taken #1.
No Korean should be ahead of Serral result wise, none of them come close to Serral or Reynor for that matter.
Agreed. Aligulac has 10 years worth of cross regional play that is built into the ratings inter- and intra-region.
There is no objectively better metric than aligulac. Aligulac measures pattern of form extremely well but of course nothing can predict how someone will play 'on the day' so its never 100pc accurate. But much better than just randomly grouping players on gut feel or who your unconscious bias considers to be better than who.
In any other sport if gold, silver and bronze went to one country oe region you would consider that country or region to be the best.
Admittedly it is a bit different in SC2 because we tend to compare one country against all others but nethertheless the 3 current best players live outside of the home of Starcraft.
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On November 20 2020 04:58 Dave4 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2020 04:21 lostusername123 wrote:
In this Thread: people don't understand how aligulac works, or how these ratings are self correcting.
You could give a 1000 Aligulac Rating lead to koreans when they start off, Serral would still have taken #1.
No Korean should be ahead of Serral result wise, none of them come close to Serral or Reynor for that matter.
Agreed. Aligulac has 10 years worth of cross regional play that is built into the ratings inter- and intra-region. There is no objectively better metric than aligulac. Aligulac measures pattern of form extremely well but of course nothing can predict how someone will play 'on the day' so its never 100pc accurate. But much better than just randomly grouping players on gut feel or who your unconscious bias considers to be better than who. In any other sport if gold, silver and bronze went to one country oe region you would consider that country or region to be the best. Admittedly it is a bit different in SC2 because we tend to compare one country against all others but nethertheless the 3 current best players live outside of the home of Starcraft.
"Best" is a fuzzy word, stating that as a fact is bound to raise controversy. An alternative interpretation is that the best player in the world and his two biggest enemies live outside of the home of Starcraft, or that the two best players and their designated killer live outside the home of Starcraft. All of these would have pretty similar signatures on Aligulac, simply for the fact that beating Serral gets you a lot of points there.
Aligulac also doesn't account for offline-only, preparation-driven anomalies like TY (and Maru to a lesser extent). I think this is not as big of a problem as people think when predicting cross-region tournaments, since the big cross-region tournaments are weekenders and not preparation-driven, but that always does have to be mentioned as well. People will weigh IEM and GSL success differently in defining "best", some favoring the scale and fame of IEM and others the tested prestige of the GSL.
Also, the leap of "Aligulac objectively is the best metric we have" to "Aligulac objectively is the best metric" is not very fair, just because it's the best measure in existence doesn't mean it has to do its job well, just that it has to its job better than others.
Big proclamations feel good and drive hype, but to claim them as fact is little better than trolling. Particularly calling Clem one of the three best players of SC is speculation at this point. I believe it is true as well, based on his unmatched TvZ, but that's a forecast and not a fact. Facts require evidence, and Aligulac is nothing more than educated forecasting when it comes to matchups it has not yet seen (notably, Clem vs in-form Koreans).
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On November 20 2020 05:34 yubo56 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2020 04:58 Dave4 wrote:On November 20 2020 04:21 lostusername123 wrote:
In this Thread: people don't understand how aligulac works, or how these ratings are self correcting.
You could give a 1000 Aligulac Rating lead to koreans when they start off, Serral would still have taken #1.
No Korean should be ahead of Serral result wise, none of them come close to Serral or Reynor for that matter.
Agreed. Aligulac has 10 years worth of cross regional play that is built into the ratings inter- and intra-region. There is no objectively better metric than aligulac. Aligulac measures pattern of form extremely well but of course nothing can predict how someone will play 'on the day' so its never 100pc accurate. But much better than just randomly grouping players on gut feel or who your unconscious bias considers to be better than who. In any other sport if gold, silver and bronze went to one country oe region you would consider that country or region to be the best. Admittedly it is a bit different in SC2 because we tend to compare one country against all others but nethertheless the 3 current best players live outside of the home of Starcraft. "Best" is a fuzzy word, stating that as a fact is bound to raise controversy. An alternative interpretation is that the best player in the world and his two biggest enemies live outside of the home of Starcraft, or that the two best players and their designated killer live outside the home of Starcraft. All of these would have pretty similar signatures on Aligulac, simply for the fact that beating Serral gets you a lot of points there. Aligulac also doesn't account for offline-only, preparation-driven anomalies like TY (and Maru to a lesser extent). I think this is not as big of a problem as people think when predicting cross-region tournaments, since the big cross-region tournaments are weekenders and not preparation-driven, but that always does have to be mentioned as well. People will weigh IEM and GSL success differently in defining "best", some favoring the scale and fame of IEM and others the tested prestige of the GSL. Also, the leap of "Aligulac objectively is the best metric we have" to "Aligulac objectively is the best metric" is not very fair, just because it's the best measure in existence doesn't mean it has to do its job well, just that it has to its job better than others. Big proclamations feel good and drive hype, but to claim them as fact is little better than trolling. Particularly calling Clem one of the three best players of SC is speculation at this point. I believe it is true as well, based on his unmatched TvZ, but that's a forecast and not a fact. Facts require evidence, and Aligulac is nothing more than educated forecasting when it comes to matchups it has not yet seen (notably, Clem vs in-form Koreans).
Agree with this.
When Clem is playing at his best, his micro is better than that of every other Terran, currently playing this game, probably the best ever in SC2. But 1) micro isn t everything 2) he s realy momentum based Player, who still has to work on out-of-game aspects as well, wich come with experience.
Despite him beeing older than Reynor, bis Z counterpart is way more experience in high stack matches die to his faster rise in 2018 and 2019
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man you guys are hilarious.
first it's non lan tournaments, clem is great but he hasn't won one tournament that i know of and certainly not at LAN?
and korea is the worst it's been due to many reasons but you sure celebrate as if korea was toppled at their peak, not to mention korea still has the most players by far that are in the top 20.
it's literally serral/reynor that have proven themselves over and over at LAN and some results at a non lan tourney and you guys sure like to trumpet
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On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike...
he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2.
Absolutely unfathomable to me how you could possibly not be a troll. This thread is basically begging for it.
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On November 20 2020 11:56 Jealous wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike...
he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2. Absolutely unfathomable to me how you could possibly not be a troll. This thread is basically begging for it.
He's an enthusiast of foreign Sc2 and he is no more a troll than those who worship KeSpa above everything else and are perpetually stuck in HoTS.
While Dave's take is certainly extreme, I can find you twice the people here on TL who wholeheartedly declare the opposite extreme being undeniable truth.
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On November 20 2020 12:16 Xain0n wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2020 11:56 Jealous wrote:On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike...
he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2. Absolutely unfathomable to me how you could possibly not be a troll. This thread is basically begging for it. He's an enthusiast of foreign Sc2 and he is no more a troll than those who worship KeSpa above everything else and are perpetually stuck in HoTS. While Dave's take is certainly extreme, I can find you twice the people here on TL who wholeheartedly declare the opposite extreme being undeniable truth.
They don't generally make threads to announce that stance, though - nor is it seemingly 50% of their post history.
I know you are of like mind so it's natural for you to defend his position but if you take a step back, I think it's quite obvious that the presentation is abrasive.
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On November 20 2020 12:28 Jealous wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2020 12:16 Xain0n wrote:On November 20 2020 11:56 Jealous wrote:On November 19 2020 20:43 Dave4 wrote:
Serral, Reynor and Clem have proven their metal against foreigner and Korean opponents alike...
he is now clearly the greatest player of all time in Starcraft 2. Absolutely unfathomable to me how you could possibly not be a troll. This thread is basically begging for it. He's an enthusiast of foreign Sc2 and he is no more a troll than those who worship KeSpa above everything else and are perpetually stuck in HoTS. While Dave's take is certainly extreme, I can find you twice the people here on TL who wholeheartedly declare the opposite extreme being undeniable truth. They don't generally make threads to announce that stance, though - nor is it seemingly 50% of their post history. I know you are of like mind so it's natural for you to defend his position but if you take a step back, I think it's quite obvious that the presentation is abrasive.
I wouldn't be so sure, there are active accounts here on TL whose owners spend a significant amount of their posts hating on foreigners.
Top 3 Aligulac players being from EU, by itself, is certainly worthy of a thread.
It's true that Clem hasn't proved himself against top koreans the way Serral and, to a lesser degree, Reynor have.
Serral being uncontestedly the best player in SC2's history is a pretty extreme take; let me remind you, in any of case, that there are people out there who are convinced that all of Serral's trophies are worthless because he doesn't play in GSL...
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To clear up a few misconceptions:
1) No I am not a troll. I truly believe Serrals dominance over 3 years is an uncontested feat in Starcraft 2 in a period when the game may not be its deepest, but certainly is the most figured out. Serrals peak is the highest and has been the longest in both time duration and number of tournaments, and has been repeated consistently against foreign players and Korean players alike. If you have a different opinion you are entitled to it but in any other sport a player this far ahead of the competition is usually acknowledged for the facts, which is what i base my opinion on.
2) Korean level of play is currently the highest it ever has been. Again, it may not be the deepest, but the game is far more figured out now than it was in any other era. Any assertion that this is not the case is assuming an alternate universe where the players of that era "got stronger over time".
3) As i mentioned Aligulac is not perfect at predicting results. It measures form over time using objective statistical measures. It is the best available level measure of skill. Applying subjective beliefs on top of that is fine as long as you acknowledge you are exiting mathematic evidence.
4) In an era where offline events can no longer exist, using this as an argument is no longer relevant.
And as I previously mentioned - any other sport in the world where gold silver bronze belong to one country/region, people almost unanimously agree that region is on top. I certainly have believed it about Korea when the reverse applied. You cant have your cake and eat it too - if you want esports to be legitimately considered a sport in this way you need to be willing to concede to the facts available, or acknowledge your unconscious bias.
P.s i am not trying to be obnoxious or anything I am trying to just state the facts. I appreciate others have a different view of the world but when the evidence contradicts that view you have to accept that people will bawk at it.
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EPT
