EPT
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a complete history of everyone to place in the Top 16
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a year by year breakdown of the standings
sOs has the second most appearances in the Top 16 (eight), but he only ranked in the Top 8 once (12.5% of the time) during his career. GuMiho, who placed among the Top 16 in the standings five times, only reached the Top 8 once (20% of the time), giving him the second lowest conversion rate among anyone to appear in the standings five or more times.
Life, Rain, INNoVation, sOs and Maru are the only players to rank among the Top 16 during all three years of Heart of the Swarm. Their average finish across those three years are 6.6, 7.3, 4.3, 9 and 6.3 respectively.
Stats and TY are the only players (with more than three appearances in the standings) to finish in the Top 8 every time they were ranked in the Top 16. Stats, who averaged a third place finish from 2016 to 2018, averaged a 4.4th place finish during the five years in which he appeared in the standings. TY, whose average placement from 2016 to 2018 was 5.3, has a career average finish of 5.2.
Maru, sOs, Zest, Classic and Trap are the only players to rank among the Top 16 twice in Heart of the Swarm and four or more times in Legacy of the Void.
herO finished first in the standings in 2015 after winning SSL Season 3, KeSPA Cup 1 and placing Top 4 in Season 1 of Code S, as well as SSL Season 2 and IEM Shenzhen. ByuL is the only other player to reach the top four of a Premier event (excluding the WCS Global Finals) three or more times during 2015.
When it comes to average placement, Trap's second, fourth and third place finishes from 2019 to 2022 represent the best three year stretch of any player to appear in the standings not named Maru. Stats also achieved this feat, averaging a third place finish from 2016-2018 (5,1,3). Their closest competitors are Rogue, who averaged 3.3 (6,2,2), Dark, who also averaged 3.3 (1,3,7) over a three year stretch and TY, who averaged 5.3 from 2016-2018 (6,5,5).
The players with the biggest drop off after finishing first in the standing (who managed to appear in the Top 16 the following year) are Zest and Classic—both of whom finished 12th in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Outside of Maru, who ranked number one in 2022 and 2023, Dark and Stats hold the mark for the highest placement—with both finishing third the year after topping the standings.
Solar and Dark are tied for the longest ongoing run of consecutive Top 16 finishes, having appeared in the rankings every year since 2016.
Maru and TY are the only Terrans to finish first in the standings (Maru has done so three times, TY has done so once). The other players to finish first are Soulkey, Zest, herO, Dark and Stats.
Of the 20 players to appear exactly once in the standings, Soulkey is the only player to have won during the only season in which he ranked in the Top 16. Bomber and Creator, both of whom finished fifth in their lone appearances, are tied for the second highest ranking. The only other player to appear once and finish in the Top 8 is Hydra.
Of the 20 players who appeared exactly once in the standings, TaeJa and NightMare are tied for the lowest finish (16)
Dark is the only player to finish first in the standings and win the World Championship event at the end of the year.
Rogue is the only player to finish second in the standings in back to back seasons (2020/21 and 2022)
INnoVation and Rogue are the only players to finish second on two occasions. Rogue did so in back to back years, while INnoVation did the same in 2013 and 2017.
The largest disparity between a player’s rank in the standings and how they finished in that year’s World Championship is sOs, who won in 2015 despite being the 14th seeded player.
The record for the longest gap of time between two Top 16 finishes is held by Dream and DRG—who failed to appear on the standings for five consecutive years.
Of all military returnees, ByuN is the only one to finish in the Top 16 in their first year back.
Of the 17 players who have appeared in the Top 16 five or more times, six play Terran, four play Zerg and seven play Protoss.
Dear has more appearances (six) during his eight year career than any other player to have been retired for at least two years.
2016 is the only year in which the first and second place finishers played the same race—with Dark finishing first and Solar coming in second.
The most recent Protoss player to finish first in the standings was Stats—who did so in 2017. Fellow Protoss Players Zest and herO achieved the same feat in 2014 and 2015 respectively..
Zest is the only player to finish first in the WC standings and win Proleague in the same year
soO, Trap and herO are the only players to finish second in the standings without winning a premier event during that calendar year (soO in 2014, Trap in 2019 and herO in 2023).
Out of all 48 players, Rain posted the highest finish in the year before retiring—finishing sixth in 2015.
TY, who began his military service after the 2020/21 season, placed higher than any player (first) in the year preceding his their entry into the military.
DRG is the only player to feature in the standings exactly four times.
The only race to record back to back first place finishers by two different players is Protoss—with Zest and herO doing so in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
18 players have appeared in the standings five or more times during their career. Out of the 18, GuMiho, sOs and Cure are the only players to never finish in the top 4.
Written by Mizenhauer
