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ESL Open Cups: Retrospective by the Numbers

Forum Index > SC2 General
19 CommentsPost a Reply

ESL Open Cups: Retrospective by the Numbers

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
October 15th, 2024 21:14 GMT

The ESL Open Cups: A Retrospective by the Numbers

by Wax

From January 12th of 2020 to August 26th of 2024, the weekly ESL Open Cups were one of the most reliable and steady pillars of the competitive StarCraft II scene. Throughout 242 weeks of competition and 726 individual server cups, the competition was a place where players could test their skills and fans could enjoy top level StarCraft II year round.

With the ESL Open Cups now on indefinite hiatus, it's time to take a look at the statistics and numbers that defined this venerable competition. Here's to hoping that this article isn't an epitaph, but the epilogue to chapter 1.

A Heck of a Lot of Games Played

Over the course of 726 cups, players competed in 42234 series and 95016 games. Europe was the most active competition, with 49985 games played. The Americas came in second with 32147, while Asia/Korea trailed with 12884 games.

[image loading]
Stats via Aligulac.com


MaxPax played the most overall games with a whopping 3915. In effect, the demure Dane was present in over 4% of all ESL Open Cup games in history. This extreme participation also helped MaxPax rack up the record for the most map/game wins with 3044 (1379 series wins).

While MaxPax earned the most total wins, he was bested by two other players in terms of win percentage (both series and map). Clem achieved the highest map and series win-rates by triumphing in 80.33% of his maps (2545-623) and 88.72% of his series (1140-1145). HeroMarine, a dominant force in the first two years of Open Cup play, came in second place of both categories with a 77.81% map win-rate (2160-616) and 84.96% series win-rate (966-171).

[image loading]
Stats via Aligulac.com. 11 players with most cup titles selected.


The Kings of The Cup

As one might guess from Clem's ridiculous win-rate and enormous number of games played, he holds the record for most Open Cup championships with a clean 100 (75 EU, 24 NA, 1 KR). The other top cup winners included MaxPax (93), HeroMarine (58), Dark (51), ByuN (50), herO (50), Solar (47), Zest (44), and Cure (33). In total, 60 different players won at least one open cup during its four year run.

[image loading]

Stats via Liquipedia


The record for most consecutive weeks of winning at least a single cup goes to MaxPax, who was victorious for 8 weeks in a row (weeks #225 to #232). He even scored a couple of doubles during that time, winning 10 total cups in 8 weeks (7 Americas, 3 Europe). The single-server win streak records belong to Dark on Asia (7 in a row, cups #166 to #172), MaxPax in the Americas (7, cups #225 to #231), and HeroMarine and Clem in Europe (6, #31 to #36 for HeroMarine, #64 to #69 for Clem).

Eight players achieved a weekly double (winning two server cups in the same week): MaxPax (11 times), Zest (9), herO (6), ByuN (5), Clem (4), Dark (4), Cure (4), Solar (2). However, the holy grail of a weekly triple ultimately went unclaimed. Still, MaxPax, Cure, and Clem all managed to achieve a career triple, winning at least one cup title on all three servers.

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

A total of $336,900 in prize money was awarded through the ESL Open Cups, with MaxPax winning the largest share of it with $30,950. Overall, the top ten prize money winners took home over 50% of the prize money.

[image loading]
Stats via EsportsEarnings & Liquipedia


Balance Implications (Not Really)

Protoss was the most represented faction in the ESL Open Cups, being present in 77.08% of non-mirror games (equal race distribution would see each race represented in around* 66.66% of games). Terran was present in 64.34% of non-mirror games, while Zerg was the least represented at 58.58%.

*This isn't an exact measure of race participation due to a variety of factors, but I think it's a passable alternative as I was unable to obtain the race % breakdown of every cup entrant in history.

On top of being the most played faction, Protoss also came out with the best overall map win-rates. PvZ was the most skewed with Protoss leading 11743 to 9788 (54.54% win-rate), while PvT favored Protoss slightly at 12701W-12309L (50.78% win-rate). As for TvZ, Terran had the edge with 7323W-6516L (52.92% win-rate).

However, it's hard to draw any larger balance conclusions from these numbers due to the large discrepancies on each server. For example, the TvZ win-rate in the EU Cup was as high as 57.30% (3899-2906), but as low as 47.14% (907-1017) in the KR Cup. Ultimately, the only thing I'd take away from the ESL Open Cups is that Protoss is disproportionately played at the low-pro/high-amateur level.

[image loading]
Stats via Aligulac.com. Results with Random players not included.


The Greatest ESL Open Cup Players of All Time

What's the point of all these numbers if we can't use them to arbitrarily rank some players? Thus, here's the OFFICIAL TL.net GOAT list for ESL Open Cup Players.

  1. Clem
  2. MaxPax
  3. HeroMarine
  4. Zest
  5. ByuN
  6. Solar
  7. herO
  8. Dark
  9. Cure
  10. Reynor
  11. ShoWTimE




Writer: Wax
Thanks to: enuaj, Kashim
Photos: Viola Schuldner (via ESL)
Statistics and records: Liquipedia, Aligulac.com, and Esportsearnings

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TL+ Member
tommey.liang
Profile Joined November 2020
United States362 Posts
October 16 2024 03:24 GMT
#2
Really nice write-up. As someone who tuned into SC2 again during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic era, it felt like a miracle that I stumbled upon the beginning era of the ESL Open Cups.

It's been entertaining to see the breadth and depth of players and gameplay from Clem to MaxPax to HeroMarine and ShoWTimE and occasionally even Serral hopping on a handful of cups throughout the four years. I would tune in most to the EU cups, then to the NA cups, and then occasionally the KR ones (they were either super early or super late).

Shoutout to Wardiii, Steadfast, ZombieGrub, Rotti for casting and streaming, and Clem and Reynor for occasionally streaming their ESL Open Cup runs. With this indefinite hiatus, it definitely feels like a good friend who's gone away for summer vacation.

Hopefully they return soon as they were the most consistent showcase of SC2 excellence and competition.
FF, KH, Persona, Uncharted, Yakuza | Porter, Illenium, MitiS, Dabin, Seven Lions, Petit Biscuit | Diablo II, SC2 | Pho, sushi, tacos
yubo56
Profile Joined May 2014
687 Posts
October 16 2024 03:37 GMT
#3
Zest getting #4 in the GOAT rankings even though he only played in like half the cups, typical TL GOAT ranking behavior

Hahahaha, I'm memeing, I love it, Zest was so dominant when he played in these, well deserved
Jung Yoon Jong fighting, even after retirement! Feel better soon.
kAra
Profile Joined September 2004
Germany1360 Posts
October 16 2024 04:58 GMT
#4
nice read, dont see much of those nower days
mada mada dane
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25071 Posts
October 16 2024 06:38 GMT
#5
Who has the highest win percentage of weekly tournaments by participation? Sheesh you call these stats?!

Nah I josh, fun read, hopefully they can return sooner rather than later
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
MJG
Profile Joined May 2018
United Kingdom941 Posts
October 16 2024 08:28 GMT
#6
Great analysis, as always!

I'll miss the weekly if it doesn't come back. It certainly seems to get enough viewership for the community to keep it going, but that's obviously much less secure for players than it being embedded in a tour.
"You have to play for yourself, you have to play to get better; you can't play to make other people happy, that's not gonna ever sustain you." - NonY
Argonauta
Profile Joined July 2016
Spain4906 Posts
October 16 2024 12:18 GMT
#7
wow Zest!
Rogue | Maru | Scarlett | Trap
TL+ Member
Capitanoano
Profile Joined July 2019
Italy46 Posts
October 16 2024 16:39 GMT
#8
very nicely written article, and very interesting to read all those stats! thank you so much!!!
I hope the last one was not the REAL last...
Lambertus
Profile Joined February 2010
South Africa970 Posts
October 16 2024 16:45 GMT
#9
Nice one, short and sweet and stats are always cool!
The only known Reverend on TL playing SC2 and BW (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=409226)
enuaj
Profile Joined May 2017
35 Posts
October 16 2024 16:54 GMT
#10
Thank you Wax!
Go go Stats!
Kitai
Profile Joined June 2012
United States873 Posts
October 17 2024 07:00 GMT
#11
Finally, a GOAT list that's hard to argue with
"You know, I don't care if soO got 100 second places in a row. Anyone who doesn't think that he's going to win blizzcon watching this series is a fool" - Artosis, Blizzcon 2014 soO vs TaeJa
M3t4PhYzX
Profile Joined March 2019
Poland4185 Posts
October 17 2024 07:16 GMT
#12
Some very interesting information. Thanks
odi profanum vulgus et arceo
Kashim
Profile Joined December 2013
Poland1200 Posts
October 17 2024 08:27 GMT
#13
nice read, thanks Wax
SC2 LP Staff, Aligulac Editor, Tournament Organiser and Admin @KashimSC2
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-10-17 12:36:27
October 17 2024 12:36 GMT
#14
I knew it was a lot of game, but not that many game, over 3000 maps for MaxPax is crazy!

Here's to hopping they come back next year.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
luxon
Profile Joined August 2012
United States111 Posts
October 17 2024 18:54 GMT
#15
theres a tl frontpager for this, but not clem winning the largest tournament in sc2 history lol who is the editor in charge here
enuaj
Profile Joined May 2017
35 Posts
October 18 2024 03:44 GMT
#16
On October 18 2024 03:54 luxon wrote:
theres a tl frontpager for this, but not clem winning the largest tournament in sc2 history lol who is the editor in charge here

There was a news at the time though: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/629808-ept-2023-24-world-championship-ewc-final-results
It was on the frontpage, not with a picture of Clem, but it was there.
Go go Stats!
Topin
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Peru10055 Posts
October 18 2024 21:17 GMT
#17
maxpax and clem numbers are crazy!
i would define my style between a mix of ByuN, Maru and MKP
muppet70
Profile Joined January 2017
Sweden72 Posts
October 19 2024 07:55 GMT
#18
You have any stats for number of mirror games for each race?
viajesaereoss
Profile Joined October 2024
1 Post
October 19 2024 09:37 GMT
#19
--- Nuked ---
ejozl
Profile Joined October 2010
Denmark3366 Posts
October 19 2024 11:41 GMT
#20
clem is pwning in modern times, but when I think esl open cup, I think of maxpax. He's the sole reason that I tune in every week.
SC2 Archon needs "Terrible, terrible damage" as one of it's quotes.
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