| Rank |
Player |
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High |
Description |
| 1. |
Flash
(T) (stats) |
+4 |
1 |
There are quite a few viable candidates for #1. Five, to be exact. If that weren't bad enough, after the one slot has been taken, there are still four players vying for the second slot. And three for the third. The main problem with rating these fabulous five is that it's very tough to compare them impartially, and there are countless arguments for and against any given ordering.
Part of me just wants to go with permutated luck, and hope that that 1/120th chance strikes concordance with a majority of you PR readers.
Yeah, right. Honestly, if I were given the choice, I'd just list all these guys as #1. There's a perfectly good argument for each and every one, but that can't be the case. So, I guess I've got to get nitpicky.
There's a fine line between achievement and hotness, right? Power Rank has always sought to find and pinpoint where each progamer lies upon that line, and it's such an ever-shifting line. I mean, sometimes it's not even a line. For this month, Flash has no individual league achievements. Having been knocked out of OSL and MSL in mid-December, he's been relegated to Winner's League for now.
So really, in that sense Flash has no achievements. His play that got him knocked out of the OSL/MSL was not up to par, and we wondered if he would go into a slump.
But no, Flash (along with others, yes, but for the sake of this narrative!) has decided to make Winner's League his personal jungle gym--there's a reason KT is undefeated, you know. If you've been watching the games (as any informed PR frequenter should be), can you honestly tell me that the Flash of January is still demonstrating the lackluster play that got him eliminated from the leagues? No, you can't. As overpriced as he is in FPL, Flash is delivering. He's not had the chance to All-Kill yet, but you can't fault him--he doesn't get sent out first, and the other members on his team are more than capable of picking up a kill or two.
However, Flash hasn't failed the team in its time[s] of need. Starting off the season with a phenomenal reverse 3-kill against SKT (scalping Fantasy, Ssak, and Bisu), Flash continued with another 3-kill to take the 4-3 against Hite. And just last night, he did it again. With KT being down 3-1 to MBC, Flash took out Sea, Light, and Jaehoon in what the Live Report threads described (at least the latter two matches) as a "roflstomp". These aren't fluke wins--Flash is playing crazy good Starcraft.
The one time Flash has lost in January was to ZerO, and that was in a game where Flash's build wasn't designed for lategame, and an on-fire ZerO took him down before losing to Action.
So there you have it. Flash lacks achievements, but has power. I normally don't like using this quantifier, but who can take Flash in a Bo5 right now? Stork, maybe? That's the problem inherent with this month--we have nothing to go off of. However, in this messed-up scene we're in right now, there's no constant between achievement and power. I mean, Modesty made a semifinal. And especially this month, where the Starleagues are winding down--how many people were left to stake their claim? While I predominantly would say that making the latter rounds of a Starleague signifies good player, sometimes this just isn't the case. Unlike normal Proleague, Winner's League really allows the stars to shine, and this particular star is still shining the brightest. |
| 2. |
Fantasy
(T) (stats) |
- |
1 |
Let's open with an analogy that I'll run with further on down the PR as well. Let's say that the Brood War progaming scene for the top players is a class, and the only grades consist of random pop quizzes and tests.
Call the average Proleague game a pop quiz, and a BoX series a test. Obviously, it's much harder to prepare for a pop quiz--one can only rely on being up to speed in order to do well. On the other hand, tests are known far in advance, and performances can really differ based on performances. Yes, this is a slightly flawed analogy since not everybody has the "privilege" to take tests, but let's run with it.
So for this month, Fantasy is the kid in the class that doesn't do so well on these pop quizzes, but managed to study and study and study to ace the test. As such, what would his grade be? I wish I knew--if percentages were easy to assign, this Power Rank would be so much easier to write.
But this pretty much does sum up Fantasy's month. He won the big kahuna, taking the OSL gold with a crushing preparation-based victory over Stork. A+ on the test, definitely, even though his road to the final was relatively easy. However, he's been making C's on his pop quizzes, represented by a 6-5 in WL. Granted, his losses have come against people who are good vT [Stork, ZerO, Flash, and yes, Jaehoon (and ggaemo is doing well?)] If we extend this analogy, a "hot" player would be acing both the tests and the quizzes, though few players for the month of December have had the opportunity to take the tests. Nonetheless, I certainly wouldn't say that Fantasy is "hot" at the moment. He can certainly prepare, but his average Winner's League game is lacking. Some of you will say that Fantasy deserves #1 for his OSL title, and some may say that his "hotness" doesn't merit the second slot, but I say that Fantasy gets the benefit of the doubt since he had to divert practice time to the OSL. So at #2 Fantasy stays this month. I honestly don't think he'll be anywhere this high come next month, but I've been wrong so many times this season it's not even amusing anymore.
Also as an addendum I have a quote from Ver that helps this position:
Fantasy played quite well against Calm minus game 1. What's also really important is that Fantasy didn't blunder in the finals and give away a free win, because he did that in both his last two finals. |
| 3. |
Stork[gm]
(P) (stats) |
-2 |
1 |
I don't think there's a single [sane] person on TL who still wants Stork as #1. It's ridiculous how fast somebody can "fall". Stork went from being in a very good position to win both leagues to exiting both hard with an 0-6 record. A week ago, he was on top of the world, flying high as #1. Nobody else was still in both leagues, and Stork had blazed hard into the 2300 club with an undefeated Winner's League record and a Reverse All-Kill to boot.
The MSL quarterfinals match did a number on Stork. During the first game, ZerO demolished Stork with a crafty build designed to abuse Stork's predictability. No problem, right? No--Stork ended up failing in the second and third games as well. Greedy protoss doesn't pay off, man.
Even after that debacle, I was still looking at Stork as the top candidate, seeing as he was favored to win over Fantasy in the OSL finals. But then it happened again. Stork brought nothing new or innovative to the finals, and instead tried to win by doing his tried-and-true. But Fantasy's ridiculous preparation was too much, and Stork was made to look silly with an 0-3 finish. Stork didn't even play poorly (sans game 2 against ZerO)--he was beaten by exacting preparation. While we can fault him for not preparing enough himself (not even attending WL to practice for MSL?), it's way more to his opponent's credit than his own discredit that he lost those series--and don't forget that Stork actually had the "chance" to fail, compared to others. Regardless of his individual league failures, Stork is still 10-1 in WL (getting revenge on Fantasy last night in the 7th set), comparable to that of the "only-WL people".
Stork is that kid that's naturally talented. He doesn't study, and does well on the pop quizzes. However, come test time, he can't deliver. Yes, I dropped Fantasy for his random failure at the end of December, but that was Fantasy failing across the board. I think Stork had way too strong of an earlier month (compared to everybody else), and even making it to a final (taking silver) and a quarterfinal means way more than to those who couldn't even get into the later rounds of even a single league. |
| 4. |
Bisu
(P) (stats) |
-2 |
1 |
I'm going to shield myself here real fast. Here's a disclaimer: remember that this isn't a "real" 4 placement. I honestly think of it more as a 1.3. SomeMany of you are going to rage at me and cry indignantly, "Why is Bisu this low?" I'm going to compare Bisu to Flash and Stork this month. Bisu is similar to Flash in that they're both out of both leagues but are stomping Winner's League to the ground. Bisu is 15-2 while Flash is 12-1. That's pretty comparable. Bisu has 3 All-Kills (in a row, no less), and Flash has numerous three-kills, but as stated above that's because Flash never had the chance to all-kill. On the other hand, Stork is also doing well in WL, as stated above. In that aspect, he's on par with Bisu, but he had the league runs, which pushes him over Bisu. wait, but Bisu isn't given the same treatment as Flash. Yes, one hundred percent correct. You know why? While Bisu has had a monster tear in WL this month, he's been mostly "pubstomping". While Bisu's beaten mostly everybody, he's been having trouble against the best players, and the head-to-head matters. Bisu couldn't stop Stork (0-2ed out of MSL and then later lost to him in PL) and he was unable to beat Flash. Without the league runs or the high-profile wins, I can't justify placing Bisu over any of the top three, though he's still looking ridiculously good right now.
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| 5. |
Jaedong
(Z) (stats) |
-1 |
1 |
I actually don't have much to say about the Tyrant this month. Statistically, he's performing at his normal levels, but I definitely think something's amiss--Jaedong still seems mortal. Yes, he's into the MSL Semifinals, but he barely squeaked past Snow to get there. There's two sides to this argument. One is that Jaedong is struggling. His ZvP doesn't seem as strong as it used to be (losing to Violet and just rolling over and dying to Stork?) and that he had a really rough time against Snow. I don't like that one. Instead, I say that Snow played a series far above his supposed level, a great series. If you haven't watched it, please go do so. As Harem says, "Bisu and Stork can only dream of that harass that Snow had [in that series]." In any case, what I think it boils down to is that Snow reinforced the opinion that Jaedong's current ZvP is beatable. Jaedong's still carrying his team in WL and is in the MSL semifinals, but if you had to compare Jaedong of now and Jaedong of a year ago, present Jaedong is not anywhere near as good, nor as scary. Still, Jaedong is Jaedong, and Jaedong is scary. I don't see anything too wrong or abnormal with his play--just that the edge is gone. And missing that, he just seems like a completely different person. |
| 6. |
Hydra
(Z) (stats) |
0 |
2 |
Hydra is EffOrt reincarnated. It's kind of refreshing. While he's not on the same kind of tear he was last month, Hydra is still a force to be reckoned with. He's still ELO peaking. Ridiculous. Hydra still doesn't "wow" me, but he's so solid (no jokes no jokes) that I can't help but be impressed with his gameplay (oh that sentence came out so wrong). His 3-0 over Calm in the MSL puts him into the semis against Jaedong hiimself, and this is definitely going to be a match to watch. At 8-5 his WL stats aren't so bad either, and while I can't say there's anything revolutionary or brilliant about his play (Hydra is the definition of "standard") he's winning. Style's nice, (firebathero!) but if you can win, isn't that better? |
| 7. |
ZerO
(Z) (stats) |
- |
2 |
Let's go back to that analogy I made up way back when. So ZerO is like Fantasy--he's also one of those kids that can prepare well for tests but fails at pop quizzes. He's in the MSL semis by completely out-thinking and out-playing Stork (sick sick build game 1--go watch it if you haven't) but he's still not holding his own in WL. Granted, his ZvT is still looking really good (he's the only person to beat Flash in WL so far) but it seems his ZvZ has gone back to being shaky. I wish he'd start playing better in Winner's League, but then again it's funny watching swanized post. |
| 8. |
Snow
(P) (stats) |
- |
5 |
Whoops I totally forgot Snow on my first run over this... No clue how that happened. Anyway, Snow makes his way onto the Power Rank this month not because he won a series, but because he played the series in question. Seriously, his five games against Jaedong were amazing--everybody expected Snow to just roll over and die, but Snow played brilliantly. He macroed well, harassed like a champion, and stretched the Tyrant to his limits. While he's not doing that well in WL, his sensational play in the MSL is enough to land him a spot on the Power Rank as well as a seed for the next MSL. |
| 9. |
Bogus
(T) (stats) |
- |
8 |
Bogus is being bogus, and destroying people's anti-teams. That's bogus. Surprisingly, Bogus has been doing very well in Winner's League (while the rest of STX seems to be slumping a bit?), and is playing some very solid games. With three-kills against KT and CJ under his belt and losses only to Flash, Jaedong, and Bisu, Bogus is looking pretty darn good right now, and is shaping up into the reliable terran that STX desperately needs.
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| 10. |
Violet
(P) (stats) |
- |
6 |
It's sad we won't be able to see him play for a very long time, since the Violet of 2011 Winner's League was looking very strong indeed. He started out the round by straight up trashing Jaedong, then turned that into a three-kill against OZ (but was stopped from all-killing by Magikarp). Similarly, he nearly all-killed STX as well, but was stopped by Bogus. We here at teamliquid will miss you, Violet. Get better quickly! |
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
Close but no Cigar
 great
great's done very well in the PDPop MSL, and in some weird twist of irony will make the finals since he's playing against ZerO... Despite this, I'm not very impressed at all by great, partly because of the silliness of the series between him and Kal and partly because of his pretty abysmal Winner's League play. He's 1-4, and his single win is to Calm. While he has the results in the individual leagues, his team contribution is low. Violet and Bogus aren't in any leagues but have shown very solid play, so that's why I think they should be ranked over great.
 Sea
Sea's got a lot of wins in Winner's League, but he's been unable to defeat any of his better opponents--his best wins are over BeSt (who isn't playing well recently) and Snow. Furthermore, since he's not in a league great beat him in that respect.
Shoutouts
 Tyson, Light, BaBy, Stats
The All-Kill is the best thing one can do for one's team in Winner's League. Though you guys haven't really played too impressively outside of your all-kill, it's still something to pat yourselves on the back for.
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
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I would rank Bisu at #2 or #3 but other than that, its good =)
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Great PR this month imo.
You forgot to mention Snow though.. i think he should deserve a little credit :/
And I pray for your soul for the incoming hate. GG no re
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
On February 01 2011 16:06 ZavikZyke wrote:
Great PR this imo.
You forgot to mention Snow though.. i think he should deserve a little credit :/
And I pray for your soul for the incoming hate. GG no re
HOLY CRAP HOW DID I FORGET SNOW
Editing this -__-
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Great rank. You've got the wrong Baby linked in CBNC, though.
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Bravely done! I think you've given reasonable and articulate explanations for every spot, considering how difficult it was this month to separate people.
The only one I disagree with is the placement of Fantasy, I think he should be below Bisu but your analogy has almost convinced me that you are right 
Incidentally Baby is TLPDised as the wrong Baby
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The top 5 definitely isn't in the order I'd put it. But it's still something I'm willing to accept; I'm just excited to see so many players stepping up to play absolutely beautiful Starcraft.
I think that people are- across the board- selling Jaedong short. I scanned through the PR idly while waiting for the new one. And seriously the number of times the PR writers and public consensus states that Jaedong's "edge" is gone is absolutely staggering. I think that based on the number of times people have said that Jaedong's "spark" is missing leads to one thing.
He's not going anywhere. This has happened before multiple times throughout the years, and he's always bounced back to set a new standard for himself. I can't wait to see it happen again.
Good PR, flamewheel  . Everything is edible, and more importantly it is all explained well. Already can't wait for the next one.
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
On February 01 2011 16:14 RookM wrote:The top 5 definitely isn't in the order I'd put it. But it's still something I'm willing to accept; I'm just excited to see so many players stepping up to play absolutely beautiful Starcraft. I think that people are- across the board- selling Jaedong short. I scanned through the PR idly while waiting for the new one. And seriously the number of times the PR writers and public consensus states that Jaedong's "edge" is gone is absolutely staggering. I think that based on the number of times people have said that Jaedong's "spark" is missing leads to one thing. He's not going anywhere. This has happened before multiple times throughout the years, and he's always bounced back to set a new standard for himself. I can't wait to see it happen again. Good PR, flamewheel . Everything is edible, and more importantly it is all explained well. Already can't wait for the next one.
Thanks^^
I don't think Jaedong is going anywhere (I would certainly hope not since he's my favorite player) but I'm just trying to capture the moment, you know?
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Great PR! I had slightly different opinions on the top 5 but I fully agree with your reasoning.
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On February 01 2011 16:15 flamewheel wrote:
Thanks^^
I don't think Jaedong is going anywhere (I would certainly hope not since he's my favorite player) but I'm just trying to capture the moment, you know?
Absolutely. I'm willing to accept that Jaedong is not playing the best Starcraft of his life at the moment. And to me the series against Snow reaffirmed my hope that Jaedong would bounce back. Snow played superbly. But in the last game Jaedong just... refused to lose. I had counted him out when, within one minute (it seemed; time was at a standstill) he completely turned the game on its head through sheer force of will.
And everyone else is playing such amazing Starcraft. Jaedong is still getting the results, but his games aren't as pretty. At the moment I definitely see that perspective, even if it's not my personal one.
Can't wait for Hydra v Jaedong. 
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It saddens me to see two Terrans at the top. But any ordering of the top five could've held, depending on your fanboyism or how you value different characteristics...
Flash Pros: Top WL record, won head-to-head matches with Bisu and Stork, dominating previous year
Flash Cons: Worst league eliminations of TBLS (dropped out to scrubs + Kal), plays the most successful race
Flash Mitigators: Eliminations were a while ago, and close together in time; maybe a 'fluke'.
Bisu Pros: Top WL record, triple back-to-back all-kills, plays the least successful race
Bisu Cons: Early league elimination, lost most head-to-head matches
Bisu Mitigators: Eliminated at the hands of strong players
Fantasy Pros: Won the fucking OSL 3-0 against the best PvT'er of all time
Fantasy Cons: Comparatively weak Winner's League record, fucking terrible Bo5 against Calm, plays the most successful race
Fantasy Mitigators: Had to prep for his Starleague, didn't get to play much WL except against players that defeated Bisu.
Stork Pros: Top WL record, OSL silver + MSL seed, plays the least successful race, most longevity of any relevant modern player
Stork Cons: Lost 0-3 in two back-to-back Bo5s
Stork Mitigators: Had to play two back-to-back Bo5s against extremely good ZvP/TvP players who could dedicate their time primarily to those series; can also be argued as a fluke due to close proximity of losses and successful WL play following those losses.
Jaedong Pros: Good WL record, favored to win MSL, dominating previous year (I still blame T>>Z maps for Flash's crowning as official Bonjwa over Jaedong)
Jaedong Cons: Terrible loss to Violet, looking 'shaky' in ZvP, lost head-to-head matches
I would've favored Stork-->Jaedong-->Bisu-->Fantasy-->Flash because that's approximately my order of player preference, but... yeah.
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Meh, stats did a relieable amount of 2 kills but I guess it's not top 10 worthy.
Other than that I agree by the criteria you use (especially 1-5, 6-10 seems a bit more randomly placed)
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Meh that's ok for me. Though Flash records lack SL action, he IS the scarrier guy out there. Fanta should be above Stork because of the OSL. And Stork should be above JD and Bisu because of SL and better PL performance (yes he has less wins that Bisu, but he only lost once, while Bisu lost twice, hence putting Khan above SKT1 this round).
So yeah, pretty good.
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Hooray, new Power Ranking. And so timely, too.
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i would have never put flash rank#1, he's been doing good in PL, but that's it, he has nothing else to manage, on the other side even if stork badly finish is osl and msl he was very efficient in PL, Jaedong is probably gonna win an other MSL being something like 70% of his current level and he's still doing good in PL, his zvz is as the usual, indestructible. If you follow the performances of Jaedong's opponent, even if they are doing better this season, it's still not matching Jaedong.
#1 Jaedong
#2 Stork
#3 Fantasy
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On February 01 2011 16:00 lastmotion wrote:
its good =)
On February 01 2011 16:06 ZavikZyke wrote:
Great PR this month imo.
On February 01 2011 16:08 nodule wrote:
Great rank.
On February 01 2011 16:13 DropBear wrote:
Bravely done! I think you've given reasonable and articulate explanations for every spot, considering how difficult it was this month to separate people.
On February 01 2011 16:14 RookM wrote:Good PR, flamewheel . Everything is edible, and more importantly it is all explained well. Already can't wait for the next one.
On February 01 2011 16:20 writer22816 wrote:
Great PR! I had slightly different opinions on the top 5 but I fully agree with your reasoning.
What is this? Flamewheel, you had such an easy time this month, and this is what you came up with? It's all wrong, and I, for one, feel personally offended by it. How could you even think that putting him there was a good idea? The only reason he even won any games is because of map and racial imbalances. In fact, he didn't even win any games, it was more like his opponents lost them. Your bias is so transparent, what a joke. I bet the other fanboys will just eat it up.
These other wusses may not call you out on it, but I will see to it that you will rue this ranking, heretic. Mark my words.
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Amazing PR, It is exactly same as I would put it.
On February 01 2011 15:58 flamewheel wrote:
Please don't kill me ~_~
And who would do that? Not in TL surely...
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Look at Flash at #1 and VIOLET!!!
I can finally approve Flamewheel's PR.
Now I just need to read the whole thing and get pissed.
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I would have placed Jaedong higher, and Fantasy lower, cause seriously, the only thing he has done well was his serie against Stork (great play against a psychologically weakened Stork unable to adapt).
His play against Clam should score negative points, I still can't forgive him for that.
I'd have gone with Jaedong/Flash Stork Bisu Fanta I guess.
Can't really blame you though^^
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EPT
