EPTSo a Broodwar background did help, although bonjwas and legends such as Nada, July, and Boxer did not live up to their foreclaimed glory.
The Korea Model
Another factor of success that was apparent from the beginning was that Korea was the place to train. Foreigners that traveled there and practiced showed that despite the majority of tournaments being located in the West, it was no way to compete. A Korean team house was the best way to better yourself as a Starcraft 2 pro and dominate competition when you return (EG_Idra)
But if the majority of tournaments were located in the East, why couldn't we keep up? We would often hear from casters and players that NA players (and EU) were lazy. Pro players with "loads of talent" who did not practice ended up showing disappointing results, (cough cough Tyler cough cough three hours a day). The effort our foreigner players were putting in simply could not compete with the traditional 11 hour a day practice schedules for Koreans.
Foreigner Hope
The only real foreigner hope after Jinro seemed to hit a huge slump after a RO8 run was once again, EG_Idra. Showing he could not only compete with the best of the best in Code S but also dominate the *best player in the world TSL_Clide*. However, in the middle of a deep Code S run Idra forfeited his spot and returned to the U.S because he felt that is where the large majority of tournaments would be (NASL was up-and-coming then) and that a power shift was likely to occur very soon between the East and the West.
EG even set up a team house and by the end of the NASL acquired Puma. The best way to compete with the Koreans would to start a team house with a Korean. This would surely even the playing field as it fix not only the laziness of NA pro players but also the lack of good practice partners.
Of course, Idra, with a team house to practice in, dominated every U.S. tournament he was in. As expected they weren't even close as he claimed tournament win after tournament win. The rest of the EG house demonstrated how the the team house would indeed be the second best way to improve besides and actual Korean team house. EG_Incontrol finally posted his first top 8 MLG performance since Dallas, and EG_Machine, EG_Axslav showed impressin....
Okay I can't do this anymore. None of that happened. As sure as all of us were that it would happen and that we wanted it to happen it didn't. Only Huk and Puma posted super-impressive results for EG, and Puma had just left Korea while Huk was actually living there. Idra didn't completely fluke, and won tournaments such as IEM China, he was a major disappointment considering his expectations to be the best foreigner in the world. The rest of EG did not show live up to expectations after the team house, showing little, if any, significant improvement
Korean Domination
Despite attempts by foreign players every MLG was demonstrative as how large the skill gap between foreigners and Koreans. (Why do we call ourselves foreigners that weird, bro) A b-teamer, Puma demonstrated that even players that weren't in Code S or Code A would squash just about every top foreigner. That make the Code S players even scarier.
The top 8 of every MLG was dominated by Koreans and so was every foreigner tournament with Korean invites. As much as the Teamliquid and foreigner community wanted foreigners to show that the skill level had been reset from Broodwar, we were all slowly accepting that this wasn't true. And then something happened that shocked all of us out of our comatose states, made us drop the big spoons of double chocolate fudge ice cream that we were eating straight from the container as we cried over Slayers players blue flaming their way to yet another MLG victory as foreigners sat on the sideline and watched.
IGN 3: Origins
What the Fahq,Fahq? This thread is about Stephano and you haven't even mentioned the guy at all after what seems like a SC2 history of why Koreans are so much better than us. Fahq off, I'm gonna go read about how Huk won two MLGs and Naniwa is getting nerd raged for his switch the Quantic Incredible Miracle, whoosps I mean Quantic Gaming (that didn't last long did it?) I came here because I'm a huge Stephano fan boy, and or you have a catchy title what is this crap?
Okay, okay I'll get it to it. IPL 3 first LAN for ign, great that there are huge tournaments popping up all the time blah, blah, blah. Predictions about who is going to win is another Korean. Those of us watching were surprised to see players like MarineKing get upset by this kid called Stephano. He was a french dude who streamed EU ladder a couple days a week. However, there were a lot of interesting qualifying games and most people still did not know who this kid was. Speed up to the actual tournament. Korean Code S players are suddenly rolled by this French Zerg, and I said rolled. Not just because he had a weird infestor plus really highly upgraded lings combo against Terran, but also because he played a weird style of ZvP that either outright killed Protosses or slowly constricted them until Broodlords make players like EG_Incontrol cry about how sad his race was. ZvZ was equally as impressive for not only me, but anyone watching him.
Stephano went on to win that tournament, and not without some insane memories like the Mothership vortex by Kiwkaki on Shattered Temple. At the end of it call Stephano decisively eliminated the following Koreans from his path:
FXO_Lucky (4-0 in the finals)
Ogs_TheSTC
FXO_Inori
MVP_Violet
Slayers_Boxer
Slayers_MMA
This french Zerg, who had been dominating EU ladder and even placed #1, was unbeknowst by other pro players. EG_Incontrol even admitted he had no idea who this guy was, although he crashed through waves of Code S korean players and made his wins look so convincing.
The Shock
Stephano said at IPL 3 that he ladders three hours a day. And then doesn't play anymore. He didn't live in a team house, he didn't practice custom games all day, he laddered for a couple hours each day while studying at university. He was an old Warcraft 3 pro. They're not supposed to be good at SC2. (Whoops, what happened with Naniwa and secretly Moon?) The pink power ranger defied all pre-conceived notions about what was necessary to be successful in SC2. It just didn't make sense that someone who only plays three hours a day crushed so many good players. It had to be a fluke.
It Wasn't
Stephano has more talent than anyone in the world. A recent post mentioned his amazing ladder run with around a 80% winrate. What will be even more scary for everyone else is that now Stephano can practice full time. He has moved to Korea with the Ogs house and has been dominating. In around 100 games Stephano reaches top 35 on the Korean ladder (4 days). I just saw him completely shut down really well microed banshees and blue flame from ForGG or OgsFin yesterday. TangSC made a post about what learned from watching his stream today. (And what Stephano could improve-nothing, jk)
Stephano will reach #1 on Korean ladder. It will be soon, too. There is no doubt(in my mind) Stephano is the best player in the world at this moment(talentwise) and he has not even reached his full potential. Others may argue that he has never tried the GSL format but Stephano is ready. He can execute a huge variety of strategies and he does things I have never seen any other Zerg do before. I have no idea why other players don't build a crap load of queens and the block hellions while wrapping around with zerglings. Why don't other players go heavy, heavy queen and roach to deal with Stargate and then have a push with what seems like a million transfuses? Because they're not Stephano. As biased as this post seems (because it is), I was not a huge Stephano hipster. I am only a avid fan of SC2 and would like to inform the rest of the community that if there is one player to watch, it is Stephano. Oh, and he won ESWC.
Stephano Hwaiting!
Stephano stream- http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Stephano
Denotation
*best player in the world according to Artosis
*Title- best player in the world according to Fahq
Incontrol gets a lot of crap in this article but I am actually a huge fan and root for him to succeed in every tournament. Any other foreigner players like Huk and Naniwa of course are fantastic, but that is not what this post is about.
I know there will be very positive and negative reactions, especially with such a cheesy title, but honest feedback is appreciated
!While doing so, please be civil to everyone else's opinions(if you want to flame Stephano or someone else's comment please flame me instead for my extremely "biased and unfounded" conclusions)
Even if you don't agree with this thread, (sane people won't), that doesn't mean that you shouldn't watch Stephano's stream or root for him
I don't like the pink power ranger stuff either, it's just...weird
BEFORE POSTING PLEASE READ FAQ
Please change title to Why I Think Stephano Is Best Player In The World, i think there's a lot of good sc2 players
Disclaimer*
The above section only lists the reasoning behind why that I, Fahq, think that Stephano will do very well in the near future and has the potential to beat everyone in GSL and at Blizzcon
I do no actually believe that Stephano is the best player in the world, he is unproven, and will not ever think that anyone is the best player in the world as it is completely objective and there are rises and falls, e.g. Bisu.
