SC2 Power Rank - September 2013 Text by monk Graphics by wo1fwood By: monk



WCS Season 2 is over and so is INnoVation's reign on top of the Power Rank. Sixteen of the best players in the world gathered in Cologne for the grandest of duels, and the results have heavily affected September's Power Rank. Before we continue, here is an overly simplified version of our criteria as always:



Results : Obviously, this will be the basis of any power rank. And since this is a monthly power rank, we'll be mainly focusing on results from the last month, that is the month of August. Past performances are taken into account as well, but with decreasing weight over time.



: Obviously, this will be the basis of any power rank. And since this is a monthly power rank, we'll be mainly focusing on results from the last month, that is the month of August. Past performances are taken into account as well, but with decreasing weight over time. Difficulty of opponents : Let's put it this way: if the PR existed last year, we probably wouldn't have given PartinG the #1 spot for his BWC run.



: Let's put it this way: if the PR existed last year, we probably wouldn't have given PartinG the #1 spot for his BWC run. Quality of play : How impressed were we with this player's performance? Not all wins (or losses) are created equal.



: How impressed were we with this player's performance? Not all wins (or losses) are created equal. A review, not a predictor: The PR is a rating based on previous results, not a scouting report for who will do well in the future. We can't believe this is not completely obvious.

So, onto this month's ranking! (Results up to September 1st were considered)



Special Mentions Alliance.NaNiwa: NaNiwa played well in season 2 of WCS, even beating INnoVation 2 - 0, but not well enough to earn consideration for the top ten. The Special Mentions remains a place to give shout-outs to foreigners who have upset top Koreans (see SjoW).





Close But No Cigar EG.aLive: aLive got a bit lucky with the whole



Woongjin_sOs: We're sure he's still good, but he only played three games in the month of August. 3-0'ing a skilled PvP player in Dear was his impressive achievement of the month.



Acer.Scarlett: Scarlett certainly had a fabulous month, showing off her ZvT that is on par with the best in the world. That being said, she certainly rolled her best matchup a lot this month, able to almost completely dodge her self-reported weakest matchup, ZvP. As a writer, I'm quite sad I can't really objectively put her in the top ten, as in the post-Stephano era, it's probably going to be a while before another foreigner can match her feats.



MVP.duckdeok: Though winning a tournament is impressive, winning it against mostly foreigners and mostly Protoss is less so.



CJ_Sora: 2-0 JKS, 2-0 Fantasy, 2-0 Shine, 2-0 Bomber, 2-0 Curious, 2-0 Gumiho, 2-0 Soulkey. Probably the best run ever for a guy who's technically still a semi-pro. Sora is definitely someone to watch out for in the upcoming season of Proleague. Unfortunately for him though, any future opportunities to prove himself, including both Proleague and the next season of WCS are quite a distance away.





The September 2013 Power Rank

10.

SKT_PartinG



New! New! Parting was certainly lucky to have been seeded into the Ro8 of the WCG Korean Qualifiers as the reigning champion. Without his performance in WCG last year, he may never have been afforded the chance to prove himself this month. Though he only had to win three matches in order to win this tournament, he had some of the strongest opponents Korea could offer: With seeming ease, he dispatched of Innovation, Rain, and the on-fire Sora with a 6-0 map score. Especially against Innovation, he showed off extremely stable PvT, perhaps taking a few pages from his teammate, Rain.



Parting's control also remains spot on, and while his tactics and strategy against Zerg may not seem like anything special, he'll always impress us with force fields that you'll never see anyone else on the planet successfully attempt(see his losses against Soulkey in the GSL). All in all, a good month for Parting, but he's not the complete package just yet.



9.

Woongjin_Soulkey



− 6 Soulkey had a terrible, horrendous month of August. Simply put, Innovation has seemingly made it his sole purpose in life to halt the Soulkey at every juncture since losing to him in the GSL finals, whether it be on the way to a Proleague championship, an OSL title, or even WCG qualification. Every time the two face off Soulkey plays well but inevitably loses, looking both amazing and helpless in the same instance.



While Soulkey has had a negative win-loss record this month, he remains the best performing Zerg in the Korean scene. So far, he's been the only Zerg to advance from his GSL group, defeating Parting and the rising star, Pigbaby, along the way. Not to mention he was the furthest advancing Zerg in the WCG KR qualifiers, defeating the likes of Crazy, Life, CoCa, and MKP. At a time when all Zergs are struggling, being the best performing and most impressive looking Korean Zerg (who has remained in Korea) has to count for something, right?



8.

Acer.INnoVation



− 7 The king is dead!



While he was already showing dents in his armor at the time of our last Power Rank, Innovation really fell apart in August. With a string of losses to Parting, TaeJa, and even a foreigner in NaNiwa, Innovation looked far from his usual self. And while he's always had problems in TvT ever since the hellbat nerf, it's his TvP that's more recently grown suspect. While he used to be able to win the matchup quite easily due to outplaying the opponent in the mid-game (even without SCV pulls!), more recently, he's been relying on taking it to the late-game. Not very surprisingly, this generally has not panned out well. Against Parting, Innovation played two relatively passive games that ended in his gradual demise. Against Naniwa, Innovation was simply outplayed when he became overaggressive in his harass and was unable to survive into the late-game.



All things being considered, Innovation does now have a team league to play in now. And with the opportunity to once again reign supreme in the GSTL and also dominate foreign tournaments at the same time, Innovation seems poised for yet another rise.



7.

SKT_Rain



− 5 The third of the KeSPA kings also fell down quite significantly this month, perhaps timed appropriately with the passing of the Proleague season. Though Rain suffered many losses this month, perhaps none were more damaging to his reputation and morale than his series against TaeJa. Known as the steadfast and defensive Protoss, Rain has always been the champion of stable macro-based play. The 3-0 trashing of once Protoss king in his own arena was the last in a long line of wake up calls that something had to change, that perhaps what he was currently doing was not enough.



On the plus side, he was the only player who was able to crush Bomber this month.



6.

IM_First



+ 1



Unfortunately, like many of the players on the list this month, First looks like a two-matchup player. Though competent against both Terran and Protoss, First then ran into the surprising brick Zerg wall known as Jaedong. And even ignoring the fact that Jaedong has suddenly become amazing at ZvP, First looked entirely lost at the matchup, summarized in a neatly in this



Still, a good month for First overall. Over the past month or so, First's story has been one of the little engine who could. His first hurdle was the GSL Ro16 group stages where he entered into double tiebreakers, barely making it out of the group in second place. Then after being destroyed by Bomber, First fought tooth and nail to advance as the fifth place representative from Korea to the WCS season finals, narrowly defeating Supernova in the final match with a 3 - 2 score. Then finally, First matched up against aLive in the WCS Finals Ro8 where he seemed to struggle much more than he should have. First's games against Alive ended again in a 3-2 win, though they were thoroughly unconvincing and certainly not something you'd expect from someone who had recently 4-0'd Polt.Unfortunately, like many of the players on the list this month, First looks like a two-matchup player. Though competent against both Terran and Protoss, First then ran into the surprising brick Zerg wall known as Jaedong. And even ignoring the fact that Jaedong has suddenly become amazing at ZvP, First looked entirely lost at the matchup, summarized in a neatly in this one moment Still, a good month for First overall.



5.

CMStorm_Polt



New! New! First may have 4 - 0'd Polt at the WCS Season 2 Finals, but Polt still places higher in the rankings. First off, Polt actually won a difficult tournament in WCS AM, beating Jaedong, TaeJa, Oz, Jim, and Alicia. Also, if we took transitive properties into consideration, we'd be in a big mess since Polt 4 - 0'd Jaedong, Jaedong 3 - 0'd First, and First 4 - 0'd Polt.



Instead, let's take a look at his record on the month: 16 - 6. Though Polt did not make it out of his WCS Finals group, he remains the player with the best WCS record in the world this month. His only series loss the entire month actually came from First in a matches where Polt seemed uncharacteristically caught off-guard against First's special tactics.



Like in the WCS finals, Polt only dropped four maps throughout all of WCS America, all of them to TaeJa. He seemed completely dominant in this tournament, able to overcome any player that tried to fight him straight-up, exploiting mistakes against Protoss and rolling through players like a runaway train against Zerg. A typical month for the part-timer from UT Austin.



4.

EG.Jaedong



New! New! the model for slow and steady improvement over the past year, this month highlighted an unexpected and drastic performance boost from the old Brood War legend. The subject of much ridicule for his often comical loses against Protoss, Jaedong suddenly turned the switch on this month, defeating some of the best Protosses the world had to offer: Oz, Jim, Rain, MC, First. Along the way, he showed typical Jaedong flair with



But for a two time WCS finalist, Jaedong has now a disastrous 0 - 8 in said finals, and he is now a four-time Kong. Whether Jaedong has developed a new weakness to Terrans or a string of bad luck remains to be seen, but fans can take solace in the fact that Jaedong is now ranked above both Innovation and Flash. It's amazing how much change over the course of a month. Though Jaedong has beenmodel for slow and steady improvement over the past year, this month highlighted an unexpected and drastic performance boost from the old Brood War legend. The subject of much ridicule for his often comical loses against Protoss, Jaedong suddenly turned the switch on this month, defeating some of the best Protosses the world had to offer: Oz, Jim, Rain, MC, First. Along the way, he showed typical Jaedong flair with plays like this . ZvP is no longer Jaedong's weakest matchup . That being said, Jaedong was still not immune to bouts of PvZ throws with games such as this one But for a two time WCS finalist, Jaedong has now a disastrous 0 - 8 in said finals, and he is now a four-time Kong. Whether Jaedong has developed a new weakness to Terrans or a string of bad luck remains to be seen, but fans can take solace in the fact that Jaedong is now ranked above both Innovation and Flash.



3.

MaruPrime



+ 1 Maru improves one rank to #3 despite his poor performance at the WCS Season Finals, mostly because of how much we respect the GSL/OSL/WCS KR tournament, or whatever it's called these days. In the olden days, once you won a GSL, you established yourself as pretty much the best player in the world at the time. But then the WCS system came along and asked GSL champions to prove it. So far, both GSL/OSL champions have failed to do so.



Don't get us wrong, Maru's OSL run was certainly respectable, but he's failed to reproduce his results against opponents you would think are weaker (see loses to aLive and Scarlett). Not only that, it's hard to really distinguish Maru from the hordes of other top Korean Terrans. Sure he has excellent micro, likes to make four CC's a lot, and repairs his medivacs, but other than that, what really separates him from the rest? Maru's proven himself to be a talented top contender, but time will tell if he's a mainstay of the Korean scene.



2.

Liquid`TaeJa



+ 4



Exhibit 1: TaeJa vs Innovation

In a display of raw skill, the clash between TaeJa and Innovation, a classic tale of bio versus mech, produced one of the, if not the best game of the year. Though played on a map known to be dull, the resulting game was all but. You could tell actions performed in this game came from not only some of the best players in the world, but also a special type of player with a certain know-how.



Exhibit 2: TaeJa vs Rain

TaeJa played Rain's game and came out the better player. In this age of SCV pulls and Protoss late game domination, it takes a brave Terran soul to drag it to the late game. TaeJa did just that and especially in the 39 minute long Game 2, he proved that he could indeed prevail against one of the best Protoss in the world in an area where many have failed before him. The TaeJa of Summer 2012 is back, sort of... TaeJa still lacks the aura of invincibility he displayed in 2012, and I'm afraid that particular feeling of absolute incontestability has been lost forever. The second part of the equation, however, the arresting awe-inspiring nature of his play, has returned, at least for the month of August.In a display of raw skill, the clash between TaeJa and Innovation, a classic tale of bio versus mech, produced one of the, if not the best game of the year. Though played on a map known to be dull, the resulting game was all but. You could tell actions performed in this game came from not only some of the best players in the world, but also a special type of player with a certain know-how.TaeJa played Rain's game and came out the better player. In this age of SCV pulls and Protoss late game domination, it takes a brave Terran soul to drag it to the late game. TaeJa did just that and especially in the 39 minute long Game 2, he proved that he could indeed prevail against one of the best Protoss in the world in an area where many have failed before him.



1.

ST_Bomber



+ 4 Congratulations, Bomber. Your second major tournament win was a few years later than we expected, but it was impressive nonetheless. From the get-go, the WCS Season 2 Finals looked like it was his to win. With a dominating performance in his group, Bomber was positioned very well going into the bracket stage. Though he faced stiff competition from TaeJa, perhaps Bomber's most impressive feat this month was how he approached his weakest matchup, TvZ, in the finals. After a crushing loss in the straight-up game 1 against Scarlett, Bomber exploded with his own brand of TvZ and his own uniquely planned out, often WoL-esque strategies. Bomber played his own game, overcoming both his adversities of TvZ and Bomber's law in order to finally provide his fans a much deserved win.

WCS Season 2 is over and so is INnoVation's reign on top of the Power Rank. Sixteen of the best players in the world gathered in Cologne for the grandest of duels, and the results have heavily affected September's Power Rank. Before we continue, here is an overly simplified version of ouras always:So, onto this month's ranking! (Results up towere considered)NaNiwa played well in season 2 of WCS, even beating INnoVation 2 - 0, but not well enough to earn consideration for the top ten. The Special Mentions remains a place to give shout-outs to foreigners who have upset top Koreans (see SjoW).aLive got a bit lucky with the whole visa situation this month, but he certainly took full advantage of it. After slaying a GSL champion in Maru and getting his revenge against Scarlett, aLive just barely lost to First in the quarter-finals. Still, it was a great month for aLive, and he even got enough WCS points to virtually guarantee his spot at the eventual Blizzcon Finals.We're sure he's still good, but he only played three games in the month of August. 3-0'ing a skilled PvP player in Dear was his impressive achievement of the month.Scarlett certainly had a fabulous month, showing off her ZvT that is on par with the best in the world. That being said, she certainly rolled her best matchup a lot this month, able to almost completely dodge her self-reported weakest matchup, ZvP. As a writer, I'm quite sad I can't really objectively put her in the top ten, as in the post-Stephano era, it's probably going to be a while before another foreigner can match her feats.Though winning a tournament is impressive, winning it against mostly foreigners and mostly Protoss is less so.2-0 JKS, 2-0 Fantasy, 2-0 Shine, 2-0 Bomber, 2-0 Curious, 2-0 Gumiho, 2-0 Soulkey. Probably the best run ever for a guy who's technically still a semi-pro. Sora is definitely someone to watch out for in the upcoming season of Proleague. Unfortunately for him though, any future opportunities to prove himself, including both Proleague and the next season of WCS are quite a distance away. Moderator