Hello fellow SC2 fans. At least Im kinda dissapointed, that we havent had any Power Ranks for a really long time. Where there any in 2020 ? With that said, what would be your power rank for 2020 ? Below here is a current aligulac top-25 to maybe give some direction to your lists.
Obviously last year was very different from before since all tournaments were online-only. We can argue endlessly about who it affects most, bot negatively or positively. However when we take account the whole year, it should give us a more clear picture who was playing better and who worse. The year was interesting in many ways since many players had ups and downs throughout the year, so imo it is very hard to put players into order. Instead I try to do bit more vague listing, especially because I havent followed the Korean scene that closely last year and things seem to fluctuate there more than usually. But here it goes;
PLACES 1-2, best of the best
This was imo the only tier, that was kinda easy for me. Top-2 for this year for me were definitely Serral and Dark.
Serral was very consistent again the whole year and his level of play seems to be on point most of the time. Everywhere he goes, he is one of the favourites to win it. Well, maybe except European tournaments, where he has been struggling with the new kids on the block. Only big miss was the last tournament finals against Dark, which seem to be a total miss for the Finnish Phenom. Otherwise all seem to be upset if he isnt in the finals of every tournament. Who else has those kind of expectations in the whole scene ? Yeah, nobody. And its already been 3 years in a row. One of the legends already for sure.
Dark also had a pretty strong year. I havent had the privilege to watch that many of his games last year, but his match history seems to be pretty solid troughout the year. However, his performances in GSL have been very lackluster, not even getting top-8 on any seasons ? Somebody with more knowledge can perhaps share more info on that. But.....what gives him the top-2 place is the final tournament victory. He played like a madman, crawled his way back from lower bracket to finally destroy Serral in the finals. He beat Rogue, Reynor, Showtime, Maru, Byun in the way. What can be more impressive than that ? For me its pretty hard to decide who of these two was the number one, so I settle for them being the top-2.
PLACES 3-6, near the top
Rogue, very near top-2, won IEM Katowice 2020, still inconsistent as always Trap, seems to be up there on every tournament. Best protoss 2020. Maru, bit hard to judge. In better days almost unstoppable. Injuries slowing him down ? Reynor, all the qualities to be the best. Bit too confident/cocky at times. End of the year seemed to slow him down a bit ? The Bane of Serral.
PLACES 7-10, almost there
Clem, Everybody knows his talent. Star is still rising. Needs to take the last step to be on top. Is very near now, but still tournament results kinda lackluster compared to the talent. Innovation, The machine. Top-8 in every GSL. On a good day can challenge anybody. However there are also the bad days, and the difference between those two is pretty big. Buyn, Comeback kid ! Showed to the world he still has got it. Challenged even Serral and Maru quite fast ! Will be one of the most interesting players to watch in 2021. Will he rise to the top ? Showtime, his rise to the next level was fun to watch. Managed to finally also beat even Serral. Finally we can say that on a good day he can absolutely beat anybody in the world now. Very solid gameplay especially towards the end of the year. Can he challenge the wonderkids in 2021 ?
So, what do you think ? Agree or disagree ? Make your own lists and have some reasoning behind them too. Let the friendly debate (not drama!) begin !
Don't agree with Showtime, Clem while missing Stats and TY. I would switch Serral and Dark for either Maru, Rogue or TY. Surprised to see Reynor under Serral(which is wrong IMO).
Missing a double Code S champion is a big WTF honestly.
my power rank would be Rogue, TY, Maru, Reynor, Trap(and just because Protoss won something other than NA local), Serral, Stats, Dark, Byun and Inno =)
Especially given the lack of offline international tournaments I’d weigh GSL above other considerations and TY’s had a stellar year there so he’d get my number 1 slot.
Below him the likes of Serral, Reynor and Trap have had really consistent years, Stats has been good and the likes of Dark and Maru have had really scary peaks. Don’t envy those who actually make such ranks as I’m finding it quite tricky just thinking about it now!
It's really hard to rank the non-Koreans alongside the Koreans. My ranking of who's most likely to win Katowice is very different from my ranking of who has had the best year. In terms of best year by results:
1. TY 2. Rogue 3. Serral/Reynor 5. Maru 6. Stats 7. Trap 8. Innovation 9. Dark 10. ByuN/Cure/Clem
In terms of most likely to win Katowice:
1. Serral and Rogue (they've won world championships before, and besides lacking his clutch factor Serral is looking about as good as ever.) 3. Dark (even though he's beaten Rogue and Serral recently his poor offline record against both makes me question whether he could beat both in one tournament. Otherwise he's looking scary) 4. Maru (he seems to have gotten a lot better at weekenders) 5. Reynor (Reynor has been looking weaker lately but can beat anyone) 6. Trap (Trap has shown that he can take out one top tier Zerg per tournament, so if the bracket works out he has a chance) 7. TY (TY has a bad record in non-GSL events this year but is clearly a great player, it's funny how big his gap is between these rankings but I think it's justified) 8. Stats (Stats can beat anyone but I question if he will) 9. ByuN (sound thrashings by Serral and Dark make me think he still has work to do, even if he can look like the best in the world at times) 10. Innovation (he's still really good and can beat anyone, but seems to have cooled down a lot since 2021.)
If Clem had a miracle bracket of TvZs he would have a tiny chance. Same with DRG and a miracle bracket full of Terrans, though his ZvZ means he probably has no chance. Honestly it's much harder to guess a world champion than in the last few years.
1. TY 2. Rogue 3. Maru 4. Reynor 5. Serral 6. Trap 7. Stats 8. Dark 9. Byun 10. Clem
Kind of just off the top of my head but 10th was a little hard to pick for me, I just went with Clem cause we finally had a good foreigner terran. I think INno just missed out on my list. Shout out to Cure as well he easily could be 10th.
Funny how Dark was unbeatable against Terrans last year and this year Innovation and TY eliminated him easily from all three GSL. Though brackets, but still after 2019 very surprising, i guess injury was a factor too. Due to this and his choices not to play cross server he barely played on international stage.
My list considering the whole year.
1. TY 2. Rogue 3. Serral 4. Reynor 5. Maru 6. Trap 7. Dark 8. Stats 9. Zest 10. Innovation
On January 12 2021 02:12 travis wrote: 1.) Serral 2.) TY 3.) Reynor 4.) Dark 5.) Maru 6.) Rogue 7.) Trap 8.) Clem 9.) Stats 10.) Byun
If it was just the 2nd half of 2020, I'd probably put Byun a little higher.
Why are people putting Rogue so high? What am I missing?
edit: ah I guess I wasn't thinking about katowice at the start of the year. I'll move him up a little. But I still don't rate him in say.. top 5.
I am probably an idiot for that I just feel like if he played a bo5 against the 5 players above him he'd probably lose.
Rogue won WC title at Katowice and Code S S2, Serral didn't win anything nearly as impressive. And considering the covid situation he hasn't won anything against Koreans who were fully awake
Dark Top 2 is just wrong imo. He had a Single good result in al of 2020, wich was TSL 6. He was mediocre all year long. It s debatable if he was even Top 10 at all. Like many before me allready said.
Reynor TY Serral Rogue Maru Clem Trap Stats Byun
Would bemy Top 9 I think, with a hell lot of Players Who could be 10th, Dark is maybe one of them based on recency bis alone. 10th: Dark/Cure/ Inno/ Showtime/ Zest
E.: this is also just of my head with 0 Research put into it. Wich is fine I gues, as it should reflect who impressed the most over the entire year and what sticked in the memory
On January 12 2021 14:33 dbRic1203 wrote: Dark Top 2 is just wrong imo. He had a Single good result in al of 2020, wich was TSL 6. He was mediocre all year long. It s debatable if he was even Top 10 at all. Like many before me allready said.
Reynor TY Serral Rogue Maru Clem Trap Stats Byun
Would bemy Top 9 I think, with a hell lot of Players Who could be 10th, Dark is maybe one of them based on recency bis alone. 10th: Dark/Cure/ Inno/ Showtime/ Zest
E.: this is also just of my head with 0 Research put into it. Wich is fine I gues, as it should reflect who impressed the most over the entire year and what sticked in the memory
Reynor first? Serral before Rogue? Clem before Trap and Stats? :D This has to be a joke, right?
On January 13 2021 02:26 WombaT wrote: Last Katowice was in the pre-Covid world, I can’t be the only one who totally forgot it was this year and underrated Rogue’s year as a result
They played with no audience because things were starting to get really bad for the first time in Poland.
Not including TY in your top 10 is a crime. Dark had a bad year apart from winning that last tournament. Stats should be in there over Showtime. Innovation hasn't been spectacular this year either, even though Aligulac has him at #9.
1. TY 2. Rogue 3. Maru 4. Reynor 5. Serral 6. Trap 7. Stats 8. Dark 9. Byun 10. Clem
1: Rogue 2: TY 3: Serral 4: Reynor 5: Maru 6: Trap 7: Stats 8: Zest 9: Cure 10: Dark
Close but no cigar (in no order): INnoVation, ByuN, Clem
I prioritized IEM Katowice pretty heavily because of the ridiculous prize money discrepancy with other tournament. Prize money isn't a perfect measure of tournament importance, but it's the best one we've got IMO. I also rated second place finishes pretty highly (2 silver > 1 gold; dunno the EXACT ratio, but I find the EPT point distribution in tournaments to be pretty good), prolly much higher than is 'usual' for fans.
Pretty boring to give #1 to the BlizzCon/IEM winner every year, but I don't see how to get around it.
On January 13 2021 16:05 Waxangel wrote: 1: Rogue 2: TY 3: Serral 4: Reynor 5: Maru 6: Trap 7: Stats 8: Zest 9: Cure 10: Dark
Close but no cigar (in no order): INnoVation, ByuN, Clem
I prioritized IEM Katowice pretty heavily because of the ridiculous prize money discrepancy with other tournament. Prize money isn't a perfect measure of tournament important, but it's the best one we've got IMO. I also rated second place finishes pretty highly (2 silver > 1 gold; dunno the EXACT ratio, but I find the EPT point distribution in tournaments to be pretty good), prolly much higher than is 'usual' for fans.
Pretty boring to give #1 to the BlizzCon/IEM winner every year, but I don't see how to get around it.
Maybe if somebody wins multiple Code S titles it can bare more weight than winning 1 huge tourney, somehow nobody ever addressed that. Unfortunately for 2020 Rogue managed to win IEM and Code S.
This list is basically who will win IEM right? Pretty low TY IMO Crazy that Serral is still the favorite for every tournament he enters
Could be low on TY for sure. I’m definitely a big fan of his but sometimes it looks like he just can’t win vs Reynor or Serral. Also the whole “he’s not playing sc2 much he’s playing a lot of BW” had an effect. But also the players ahead of him are just insanely good too
On January 13 2021 16:05 Waxangel wrote: 1: Rogue 2: TY 3: Serral 4: Reynor 5: Maru 6: Trap 7: Stats 8: Zest 9: Cure 10: Dark
Close but no cigar (in no order): INnoVation, ByuN, Clem
I prioritized IEM Katowice pretty heavily because of the ridiculous prize money discrepancy with other tournament. Prize money isn't a perfect measure of tournament importance, but it's the best one we've got IMO. I also rated second place finishes pretty highly (2 silver > 1 gold; dunno the EXACT ratio, but I find the EPT point distribution in tournaments to be pretty good), prolly much higher than is 'usual' for fans.
Pretty boring to give #1 to the BlizzCon/IEM winner every year, but I don't see how to get around it.
I´m fine with Wax´ list, too, though i would rate
8: Byun 9: Dark 10: Zest, Clem
I don´t understand why so much guys here do rate Maru over Serral (and Reynor)? I´m fine with TY and Rogue being the top duo, but why exactly rate Maru on 3rd place? In KoB he barely made it out of the group and then TvTed his way to win it, beating Clem, Inno and Cure, no one of those is considered to be a top Tier player this year. Then he won GSL ST1 and got 2nd place in GSL S3, which were both strong runs, besides that he had mixed results. I think Serral can bring better results to the board and won the head to head (two times). So that´s why i think Wax´ list is quite good, putting Serral and Reynor over Maru.
My own list. I might try a later list using aligulac / prize money won and/or EPT points etc data.
1. TY -> 2 GSL wins, 1 top 4. Only Maru did better on LotV. His online results were a bit lackluster but he still had an insane year. 2. Rogue -> IEM win, pretty big. Decent results outside of that as well. 3. Serral -> most prize money won among foreigners, solid year even though he had some troubles domestically. 4. Maru -> GSL ST win, GSL finals, KoB win and decent results overall is a solid year. Won a bit more prize money than Reynor so he gets the spot no contest. 5. Reynor -> a solid win in international DH Masters, did very well domestically overall, good year for him. 2nd in prize money among foreigners. 6. Trap -> he had good results in DH international and overall in every tournament, he is the Protoss that performed the best. 7. Stats -> weirdly more inconsistent than Trap but still a good year for him. 8. Clem -> finally got his breakout year, beat Serral and Reynor multiple times. He showed promising things against Korean but still a bit disappointing considering the level it takes to beat Serral and Reynor. 3rd in prize money among foreigners. 9. Dark -> disappointing year overall for the BlizzCon winner, but he managed to get better results and the TSL6 win at the end. 10. ByuN -> what a comeback lmao, only played the later part of the year and still managed to get a tournament win few months after military service. Close: INno, Cure, Zest.
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/aqOxLAz.jpg)
