Power Rank - February '12 Text by flamewheel Graphics by Silversky This is the second Brood War Power Rank of the 2011-2012 season. Round 2 of Proleague has just concluded, so the focus of this Power Rank will be upon the six weeks' worth of games played with one day's worth of Round 3 added in.



Rank Player Prev High Description 1. Flash

(T) (stats) - 1 I'm not going to say Flash looks unbeatable--his game against Stork is evidence that he can be stopped... should an opponent exert an unfathomable amount of effort.



11 matches played, and 11 wins attained in dominating fashion. No discernible weaknesses against any race. Jaedong fell in minutes. EffOrt defended valiantly, but his efforts were not enough to stop the slowly advancing tank line. Dear learned that "one does not simply 12nexus God." And Light's proxy-into-wraith tactics proved fruitless against maphacks starsense. Clutch play won't save you from Flash. Cheese won't save you from Flash. Impeccable standard play won't save you from Flash. So then, what will?



Answer: John Connor



Let's play a game. I say Flash won't lose in Proleague till Round 4. What say you? 2. Fantasy

(T) (stats) +1 2 As I've always stated, Fantasy is an enigma. Will he go on a ten-game winning streak? Or will he inexplicably lose to B-team rookies? You never know what's going to happen next, so sometimes it's best to just guess. After watching Fantasy's game against Skyhigh, I knew that the Crown Prince was in for a good round. I don't know how Fantasy did it, but somehow after saving that crucial Command Center at 11 o'clock he managed to claw his way back into the game, ultimately attaining his first ever victory against TvT menace Skyhigh. And after that, Fantasy continued the killing spree by going undefeated throughout Round 2 with good decision-making and excellent unit control. Despite the fact that SKT lost (again ahahaha) to STX, Fantasy helped SKT keep some of its pride by first destroying Classic's economy with vultures terrorists on bikes and then meticulously grinding down the STX Terran in the endgame. Furthermore, just like in the first round when he played against ZerO, Fantasy was able to demonstrate some impressive bionic control.



In hindsight, I can assuredly say that (ignoring his most recent game against Leta) Fantasy's in pretty good form. But still, was that apparent at the start of the round? And how long will this form last?

3. Neo.G_Soulkey

(Z) (stats) +4 3 Neo.G_Soulkey deserves this third slot in this month's Power Rank for two reasons: he's been Woongjin's most consistent player this season thus far and is by far, the best-performing Zerg of the season.



Though Stars at 7-7 sits in a middling fifth position, Soulkey at an impressive 9-3 personally is (record-wise) the third best-performing player in Proleague, a position he shares with KT Rolster's Stats. Guess who's been doing better than him? Oh right, Flash and Fantasy.



Though I believe Soulkey's strength lies in his macromanagement, lately his unit control and decision-making has impressed me. I'll put forth two prime examples. First, consider the game against Movie--despite being down, Soulkey kept his calm and essentially won the game with one carefully calculated observer snipe. Second, in his game against Sea, Soulkey's burrowed zergling tactics wiped Sea's bionic force out in a matter of seconds, forcing the GG. And as Soulkey demonstrated to us in his game against Piano, there's still nothing lacking in his monstrous macro.



I wrote last time that Soulkey's ZvZ was, for the most part, practical and uninspiring--it gets the job done. And seeing as he is 4-1 vZ this season (with one really boring loss to Hydra this round) I still stand by that statement. Game against Calm? Meh. Game against Killer? Ling massacre into economic destruction into GG. Game against RorO? Three bases! ...And then Soulkey wins with his massive economic advantage.



Still, Soulkey is winning. I have no qualms with that--I just want to see cleaner, more "awe-inspiring" play. But then again, that's the difference between "solid" and "excellent". And as Kim Min Chul claimed after his victory against Calm, he's going to let his results do the talking.

4. Stats

(P) (stats) -2 2 I don't have much to say about Stats that I didn't say last time. He's still doing quite well--9-3 is nothing to sneeze at, and he's still one of the main reasons that KT is first place. Decision-making is still solid--greedy RorO taking extremely fast fourth? Roll him with archon/zealot. Feeling pressured by sHy's assault? Defend expertly with shield battery and then roll with better storms. Engaging Kal's shuttle/reaver with only reaver? Roll him anyway (okay this was actually Kal being extremely sloppy).



Stats is still prone to game-losing sloppiness, which is somewhat disappointing. Lesson to be learned: despite being up more than 25 supply on Snow, if you choose to suicide all your reavers bad stuff is going to happen. Other than this, I can't really find anything reprehensible about Stats' play.



And once again, Bogus vs Stats (even though Stats lost this one) was my favorite game of the round. That rivalry is quickly manifesting itself as one of the best modern rivalries as well.



Speaking of which, I'll end with this:





Kipsate: "Frozen Kakaru gives 0 shit."



¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 5. Stork

(P) (stats) +1 1 After falling into a three-game losing streak by being defeated by Movie, Stork looked like he was losing steam after his 5-0 start. But, like the stock markets, Stork is quite the hard fellow to predict--you cannot simply extrapolate based on such a small set of data. Over the past month, Stork has issued forth a medley of "meh" and "sexy" games: standard (and by that I mean Light sucks at TvP) wins over Light and Piano, "interesting" but slightly sloppy win against Jaehoon, awesome storm against Mini to seal the deal, and two close losses against Flash and Fantasy. Despite having an overall positive mix of games played, Stork is sort of in a quandary: he beats his lesser opponents like drums and comes close to beating some awesome opponents (à la Flash and Fantasy), but the crux of the matter is he doesn't beat them.



Against both Flash and Fantasy Stork had chances to win. Brood War is a game of "what ifs"--what if Stork hadn't decided to be silly and move his army around randomly against Flash? What if he hadn't rallied so many templar into Fantasy's vultures? We don't know the answer to that, but with rivalries as deep as Flash-Stork (14-13) and Fantasy-Stork (8-10), I feel confident in saying that next time, Stork will get them Fantasy back.

6. Bisu

(P) (stats) +2 1 I'm not going to lie, I'm highly uninspired by ranks 6-10. But since we have to fill ten a month, let's do this.



If I only had one phrase to use to describe Bisu's play for this past round, it would be "thoroughly uninspiring". What has Bisu done in Round 2?

Cannon rushed Wooki



Died to hOn_sin's fail 2fact -> 5fact push



Beaten Canata



SC2'd 4gated Grape



4gated Grape Outmicroed Trap



Crushed Snow My responses:

Meh



Blah



Canata



Zzz



Whatever



Holy whoa Bisu this is what happens when you use high templar There are two main things to glimpse from these two lists. First, Bisu's opponents (with the exception of Snow) have been mediocre. Second, Bisu's play has been somewhat mediocre (with the exception of games against Snow and Trap, though Trap's control was just awful). With no strong opponents and no exceptional play against these lesser opponents, I can't justify ranking Bisu any higher than 6.

7. TurN

(T) (stats) - 7 TurN hasn't played many games this season, but the ones he has played have been quite entertaining. And he's won all four of his games. And they were all against quite good competition.



What's not to love? Well, for one thing TurN is very sloppy. Seeing as he's a rookie, I don't fault him too much for that, but it's something he can improve upon. The scary thing is cleaner play would win him games much faster. TurN's style favors aggressive play, and these games have delivered. Despite throwing away tons of units, TurN utilized +1 marines effectively in mowing down Hydra. Similarly, against BeSt TurN went for triple CC into some insane aggression (though he threw away most of his initial army due to poor positioning) that ended up winning him the game. TurN even makes TvT fast-paced and interesting. After characteristically throwing away vultures (to blow an early lead), TurN overruns Bogus by moving him out of his element and catching him out of position multiple times.



TurN may not play a clean game of StarCraft, but he definitely plays an entertaining one.

8. Jaehoon

(P) (stats) - 8 Jaehoon of Team 8 makes his Power Rank debut as rank 8. While I've always liked Jaehoon, it's still weird to have him on the Power Rank--as I said, I think 6-10 are all kind of meh this month. The scene in general just seems... sloppy right now. But nonetheless, Jaehoon is playing some nice games.



Despite Clam playing for Calm, Jaehoon's crisis management and storm usage were quite nice. Against Stork, had he built earlier cannons at his third he would have easily won (and the dark archon was pretty awesome). Jaehoon's game against hyvaa featured clutch shuttle micro, massive storm drops, and lots of invisible imbalanced units slicing up stuff.



I don't really have much more to say about this. Jaehoon's definitely been playing well, but I think this is more a commentary of "normal" Power Rank frequenters (Jaedong, Hydra, ZerO, etc.) playing poorly.

9. Leta

(T) (stats) - 1 Leta gets this ninth spot because he's been one of CJ's only positively-performing players this round and because I can't really justify it for anybody else. He's only played four games this round, but I can't say I see anything wrong with his play. In fact, his unit control is still as phenomenal as always. His 2port wraith execution against ZerO pretty much sealed the game (13 kills on one wraith wow) and his vulture harass -> wraith play managed to outmicro Fantasy (handing Fantasy one of two losses this season). And against Tyson, Leta didn't micro poorly--it's more like Tyson decided to take a level in badass for that game.

10. Brave

(P) (stats) - 10 I literally don't think there were ten good players in this round. One way or another, there was some deficiency that cost a player this tenth spot on the PR. So to choose "the best of the bad" is tough... Really, I'd just give it to nobody. But we'll give it to Brave since the slot must be filled. Despite being a one-map, one-matchup sniper, Brave has posted results. Others have not.





Close But No Cigar

Bogus

Excellent non-TvT play, terrible TvT. Has had the misfortune to go against so many ridiculous opponents. Amazing games, but oftentimes can't win when needed.



Jaedong

This has been the first time since July of 2007 that Jaedong hasn't been on the Power Rank. And, all favoritism aside, I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, one jaw-dropping game does not an appearance on the Power Rank make.



Last

He's shown somewhat that he can play TvP, but his last two TvT games have been bad. It seems that Last is only good when controlling the tempo, and doesn't respond well to pressure. And his TvZ is terrible.



Light

Light's plight is kind of like Bogus': lots of tough opponents, one bad matchup, one phenomenal matchup, and because of these factors he's slightly negative.



Shoutouts

hOn_sin

Quoting mustaju: "He made Bisu cry. Always a good thing to do."



I kid, I kid. Or do I? This is the second Brood War Power Rank of the 2011-2012 season. Round 2 of Proleague has just concluded, so the focus of this Power Rank will be upon the six weeks' worth of games played with one day's worth of Round 3 added in.Excellent non-TvT play, terrible TvT. Has had the misfortune to go against so many ridiculous opponents. Amazing games, but oftentimes can't win when needed.This has been the first time since July of 2007 that Jaedong hasn't been on the Power Rank. And, all favoritism aside, I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, one jaw-dropping game does not an appearance on the Power Rank make.He's shown somewhat that he can play TvP, but his last two TvT games have been bad. It seems that Last is only good when controlling the tempo, and doesn't respond well to pressure. And his TvZ is terrible.Light's plight is kind of like Bogus': lots of tough opponents, one bad matchup, one phenomenal matchup, and because of these factors he's slightly negative.Quoting mustaju: "He made Bisu cry. Always a good thing to do."I kid, I kid. Or do I? Writer damn, i was two days from retirement