Greatest HotS Players of All Time: Part 1 Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by NATHANIEL



Foreword:



Having already done exhaustive rankings of the Greatest Players of All Time and the Greatest Foreigners of All Time, it seemed natural to me to that I’d wrap up HotS with a list of the Greatest HotS players. None of my criteria have changed from previous iterations, but here is a quick summary for those who hadn’t read the previous editions. You can read all of my criteria here.



Because there is a large overlap with this list and the previous Greatest Players of All Time, there will not be an exhaustive analysis on their stories, playstyles or an extensive explanation describing how I balanced the various factors. Just a brief summary of their place in the history of HotS and what they did to make the list.



If you wish to read the previous list of Greatest players of All Time, you can start here:

Greatest SC2 Player of All Time, Bonus Edition

Greatest Players of All Time, Part 1

Greatest Players of All Time, Part 2

Greatest Players of All Time, Part 3

Greatest Players of All Time, Finale













#15 | ByuL







Achievements Tier 1

2nd WCS NA S3 2013





2nd GSL S2 2015





2nd GSL S3 2015





2nd SSL 3 2015





Top 4 KeSPA Cup S2 2015



ByuL’s career has been incredibly varied. He has played on a foreign team, an eSF team and a KeSPA team. He’s played in WCS and GSL, GSTL and Proleague. His play style has been equally disparate, sometimes playing full on macro Zerg, sometimes pulling out strange and weird builds from any influence of any style from NesTea’s muta base trade to Life’s counter-attack style of ZvT. And in both cases he improved upon them. He took NesTea's base trade style, but made better tactical and strategic decisions. He took Life's ZvBio style and improved on it in multiple ways. Life's style generally instantly won him the game. In ByuL's case he did counter attacks that committed less, but did more damage over a longer period of time while losing less. He built small low risk advantages all throughout the game that eventually collapsed the Terran player.



He achieved some success at the end of 2013 in WCS NA where he declared that he believed he was easily in the Top 5 most skilled players of the world. In the next year however, he was unable to prove it after moving back to Korea and getting middling results in team league, but he played the ace for IM in Proleague and did well. Eventually his style and his learned improvements all came together on his time on CJ and by the latter half of 2015, he was easily the best Zerg player in the world. Sadly, it was ultimately clear that despite his incredible skill he could never close out finals and joined the sons of soO.



Difference between ByuL and MMA:



While MMA had a large amount of results and more time being relevant, the players ByuL beat on his runs in Korea outclassed MMA enough to out weight MMA’s achievements in HotS.



ByuL’s career has been incredibly varied. He has played on a foreign team, an eSF team and a KeSPA team. He’s played in WCS and GSL, GSTL and Proleague. His play style has been equally disparate, sometimes playing full on macro Zerg, sometimes pulling out strange and weird builds from any influence of any style from NesTea’s muta base trade to Life’s counter-attack style of ZvT. And in both cases he improved upon them. He took NesTea's base trade style, but made better tactical and strategic decisions. He took Life's ZvBio style and improved on it in multiple ways. Life's style generally instantly won him the game. In ByuL's case he did counter attacks that committed less, but did more damage over a longer period of time while losing less. He built small low risk advantages all throughout the game that eventually collapsed the Terran player.He achieved some success at the end of 2013 in WCS NA where he declared that he believed he was easily in the Top 5 most skilled players of the world. In the next year however, he was unable to prove it after moving back to Korea and getting middling results in team league, but he played the ace for IM in Proleague and did well. Eventually his style and his learned improvements all came together on his time on CJ and by the latter half of 2015, he was easily the best Zerg player in the world. Sadly, it was ultimately clear that despite his incredible skill he could never close out finals and joined the sons of soO.Difference between ByuL and MMA:While MMA had a large amount of results and more time being relevant, the players ByuL beat on his runs in Korea outclassed MMA enough to out weight MMA’s achievements in HotS. #14 | Bomber







Achievements Tier 1

OSL 2013 - Top 4





WCS Season 2 Finals - 1st





Blizzcon 2013 - Top 4





WCS NA 2014 S2 - 2nd





WCS NA 2014 S3 - 1st





IEM San Jose - Top 4



Tier 2

Red Bull Austin - 2nd





Red Bull Washington - 1st



Tier 4

Red Bull Atlanta - 1st



Bomber’s career is a lesson to everyone about the importance of mechanics. Back during the peak of his skills from 2011-2012, Bomber was hailed (rightfully) as one of the best mechanical Terrans in the world and a player on Mvp’s skill level. Yet he could never take advantage of that skill as he often failed at critical moments throughout his WoL career against arguably worse players during that time.



So then what was the secret to his HotS success? If you ask me it was that Bomber has never forgotten a lesson or build he's learned since entering SC2 in early 2011. His mechanical skill relative to the rest of the scene had gone down substantially as there was an increase in overall skill and number of players. Yet Bomber took those lessons and learned how he could use it to counter his opponents even in a more modern meta. His vast repertoire allowed him to pull out builds that his opponents had never seen or played against and used it to his advantage. That was the difference between Bomber and a vast majority of players. The more you practice, the more you get stuck in the meta where there are always certain builds and playstyles that seem to dominate the field and become standard. Bomber would learn those, but he’d always pull out a random build he’d learned from any time he played in. The biggest example of this was his finals vs Jaedong in the WCS Season 2 Finals where he did early stim timings, combat shield marine attacks, a bunker rush and marine/tank composition.



When we talk about Bomber’s time in WoL, we always say that it was disappointing and underachieving compared to his skill. I’d argue it was the exact opposite during his time in HotS. His peak skill had faded yet he churned out the best results of his life from 2013-2014, far outperforming players that we perceived to be better than him (like Flash). Hats off to Bomber for having the best years of his career in HotS during the most competitive era of SC2.



Difference between Bomber and ByuL:



Bomber’s overall results isn’t too different from MMA except Bomber had an additional WCS Season 2 finals victory as well as his Red Bull Washington victory which was filled with strong players. Bomber just hit a higher peak overall than MMA and that along with the length of time he was active as one of the best players in HotS (2 years to ByuL’s half a year) was enough to put him over ByuL.



Bomber’s career is a lesson to everyone about the importance of mechanics. Back during the peak of his skills from 2011-2012, Bomber was hailed (rightfully) as one of the best mechanical Terrans in the world and a player on Mvp’s skill level. Yet he could never take advantage of that skill as he often failed at critical moments throughout his WoL career against arguably worse players during that time.So then what was the secret to his HotS success? If you ask me it was that Bomber has never forgotten a lesson or build he's learned since entering SC2 in early 2011. His mechanical skill relative to the rest of the scene had gone down substantially as there was an increase in overall skill and number of players. Yet Bomber took those lessons and learned how he could use it to counter his opponents even in a more modern meta. His vast repertoire allowed him to pull out builds that his opponents had never seen or played against and used it to his advantage. That was the difference between Bomber and a vast majority of players. The more you practice, the more you get stuck in the meta where there are always certain builds and playstyles that seem to dominate the field and become standard. Bomber would learn those, but he’d always pull out a random build he’d learned from any time he played in. The biggest example of this was his finals vs Jaedong in the WCS Season 2 Finals where he did early stim timings, combat shield marine attacks, a bunker rush and marine/tank composition.When we talk about Bomber’s time in WoL, we always say that it was disappointing and underachieving compared to his skill. I’d argue it was the exact opposite during his time in HotS. His peak skill had faded yet he churned out the best results of his life from 2013-2014, far outperforming players that we perceived to be better than him (like Flash). Hats off to Bomber for having the best years of his career in HotS during the most competitive era of SC2.Difference between Bomber and ByuL:Bomber’s overall results isn’t too different from MMA except Bomber had an additional WCS Season 2 finals victory as well as his Red Bull Washington victory which was filled with strong players. Bomber just hit a higher peak overall than MMA and that along with the length of time he was active as one of the best players in HotS (2 years to ByuL’s half a year) was enough to put him over ByuL. #13 | Soulkey







Achievements Tier 1

GSL Season 1 2013 - 1st





WCS Season 1 Finals 2013 - Top 4





GSL Season 3 2013 - Top 4





WCS Season 3 Finals 2013 - 2nd





WCG KR - Top 3





Hot6ix Cup - 2nd





IEM Taipei - Top 4



Tier 4

WCG 2013 - 1st



After an impressive showing in GSL at the very end of WoL, Soulkey (along with the 7 other Ro8 GSL players) did what many thought impossible. They stayed relevant after the switch from WoL to HotS despite having had much less practice in HotS compared to their contemporaries. More than relevance, Soulkey quickly swept past Life and became the best Zerg at the beginning of HotS and remained so for all of 2013. For that entire year, he was the Zerg to beat and his rivalries against INnoVation and sOs would write the history of 2013.



Difference between Soulkey and Bomber:



Soulkey’s peak consistency for all of 2013 as the best Zerg did better than Bomber’s up and downs in 2013 and 2014. Overall, his consistency and success in Korea just let Soulkey defeat more Top 10 players along the way.



After an impressive showing in GSL at the very end of WoL, Soulkey (along with the 7 other Ro8 GSL players) did what many thought impossible. They stayed relevant after the switch from WoL to HotS despite having had much less practice in HotS compared to their contemporaries. More than relevance, Soulkey quickly swept past Life and became the best Zerg at the beginning of HotS and remained so for all of 2013. For that entire year, he was the Zerg to beat and his rivalries against INnoVation and sOs would write the history of 2013.Difference between Soulkey and Bomber:Soulkey’s peak consistency for all of 2013 as the best Zerg did better than Bomber’s up and downs in 2013 and 2014. Overall, his consistency and success in Korea just let Soulkey defeat more Top 10 players along the way. #12 | PartinG







Achievements: Tier 1:

GSL 2015 S1 - 2nd





GSL Global Championship - 2nd





IEM Taipei - Top 4





WCG KR 2013 - 1st



Tier 2:

HSC X - 1st





DH Tours - 1st



Tier 3:

MSI Beatit - 2nd





MSI 2015 - Top 4





RB NY - 1st





IEM Shenzhen 2015 - 2nd



Tier 4:

WCG 2013 - 3rd



After having a fulfilling career on eSF in WoL, PartinG tied his hand at joining the most prestigious team in the world: SKT. And with it he gained the famous Korean training regime, which strangely didn’t seem to improve his results or skills relative to his peers from 2013-2014. He was a Proleague Star (not the Ace, but a highly skilled player that had created multiple antics that the fans loved), but as renewal started to come up nearing the end of 2014, he decided to leave. In his own words, "I was raised in the wild to be an ESF animal, not to be stuck in KeSPA Zoo.”



In terms of results this would lead to some of the best results of his career as he got top placings in the international circuit as well as achieved second in the first season of GSL in 2015. Perhaps the most astonishing result he had was his insane PvT win record against Terrans in 2015 going 79.19% in maps (137-36) and 86.5% in series (58-9). While PartinG never got that massive win he always wanted in Korea, he can rest easy knowing that he was the greatest PvT player in HotS and SC2 history and the likelihood of anyone passing him is almost nil.



Difference between PartinG and Soulkey:



While Soulkey had a higher peak consistency in 2013, PartinG’s overall consistency over the 3 years is one of the highest of any pro gamer. Add in the fact he did it against more top players on the way to more relevant results, and he clearly edges out Soulkey.



After having a fulfilling career on eSF in WoL, PartinG tied his hand at joining the most prestigious team in the world: SKT. And with it he gained the famous Korean training regime, which strangely didn’t seem to improve his results or skills relative to his peers from 2013-2014. He was a Proleague Star (not the Ace, but a highly skilled player that had created multiple antics that the fans loved), but as renewal started to come up nearing the end of 2014, he decided to leave. In his own words, "I was raised in the wild to be an ESF animal, not to be stuck in KeSPA Zoo.”In terms of results this would lead to some of the best results of his career as he got top placings in the international circuit as well as achieved second in the first season of GSL in 2015. Perhaps the most astonishing result he had was his insane PvT win record against Terrans in 2015 going 79.19% in maps (137-36) and 86.5% in series (58-9). While PartinG never got that massive win he always wanted in Korea, he can rest easy knowing that he was the greatest PvT player in HotS and SC2 history and the likelihood of anyone passing him is almost nil.Difference between PartinG and Soulkey:While Soulkey had a higher peak consistency in 2013, PartinG’s overall consistency over the 3 years is one of the highest of any pro gamer. Add in the fact he did it against more top players on the way to more relevant results, and he clearly edges out Soulkey. #11 | Classic







Achivements: Tier 1:

GSL S2 2014 - 1st





KeSPA Cup 2014 - Top 4





Blizzcon 2014 - Top 4





SSL S2 2015 - 1st





Blizzcon 2015 - Top 4



Tier 3:

IEM Shenzhen 2015 - 1st



HotS was very much the Protoss edition of SC2. When the KeSPA players switched over from BW to SC2, the majority of top tier Championship level players were Protoss. In SC2 that created a new age not too dissimilar from the Six Dragons of BW. In SC2 they were: PartinG, Rain, sOs, Zest, herO and Classic. Among the six, Classic gets the least respect. He has won two starleagues, has had top placings in other tier 1 events and despite IEM Shenzhen 2015 being a weaker event, the path he had to take to win that championship was one of the hardest possible (He beat Rain, Losira, herO and PartinG. The only player who beat him was Snute). Yet despite that we are often told he is the forgotten Champion and the one who gets the least fanfare among the top Protoss of Korea.



If I had to guess it is both by circumstance and his playstyle. PartinG is the most charismatic Korean in SC2’s history, Zest takes gravure photos, herO’s smiles makes SC2 fans weak in the knees, Rain solved PvP in 2012 forever gaining the eternal gratitude of every SC2 fan everywhere, sOs plays the craziest style of Protoss and is one of the games clutchest players. Classic? He has a chin.



In addition to that is his playstyle. Classic is a chameleon. Among all top Protoss players, he has the most variety of builds and styles. He can play anything from long macro games to timings, all-ins and crazy cheese. And he does all of them with clean, solid precision but not quite to the spectacular levels of the other 5 dragons. The difference though is that the other 5 are specialized players; they are the best at what they do. Rain mixes cheese in, but he was the best at safe standard play aiming for max army engagements. PartinG has the best micro. Zest is the the best at refinement of builds and positioning. herO is the best at perfecting one build per matchup and adapting his playstyle against his opponents over multiple games and series. sOs is the best at being crazy.



Classic doesn’t have a specialty, but what he does have is the fact that he is probably the second or third best in every one of the categories all across the board. His safe standard play, his control, his positioning, his adaptation, his cheese are all comparable to the best of the best in each field. In a way Classic may be the most dangerous Protoss of them all.



Difference between Classic and PartinG:



Classic had a higher peak both in 2014 and 2015 and while PartinG had one additional year of being a top player in 2013, that wasn’t enough to make up the difference between Classic’s and PartinG’s results.



HotS was very much the Protoss edition of SC2. When the KeSPA players switched over from BW to SC2, the majority of top tier Championship level players were Protoss. In SC2 that created a new age not too dissimilar from the Six Dragons of BW. In SC2 they were: PartinG, Rain, sOs, Zest, herO and Classic. Among the six, Classic gets the least respect. He has won two starleagues, has had top placings in other tier 1 events and despite IEM Shenzhen 2015 being a weaker event, the path he had to take to win that championship was one of the hardest possible (He beat Rain, Losira, herO and PartinG. The only player who beat him was Snute). Yet despite that we are often told he is the forgotten Champion and the one who gets the least fanfare among the top Protoss of Korea.If I had to guess it is both by circumstance and his playstyle. PartinG is the most charismatic Korean in SC2’s history, Zest takes gravure photos, herO’s smiles makes SC2 fans weak in the knees, Rain solved PvP in 2012 forever gaining the eternal gratitude of every SC2 fan everywhere, sOs plays the craziest style of Protoss and is one of the games clutchest players. Classic? He has a chin.In addition to that is his playstyle. Classic is a chameleon. Among all top Protoss players, he has the most variety of builds and styles. He can play anything from long macro games to timings, all-ins and crazy cheese. And he does all of them with clean, solid precision but not quite to the spectacular levels of the other 5 dragons. The difference though is that the other 5 are specialized players; they are the best at what they do. Rain mixes cheese in, but he was the best at safe standard play aiming for max army engagements. PartinG has the best micro. Zest is the the best at refinement of builds and positioning. herO is the best at perfecting one build per matchup and adapting his playstyle against his opponents over multiple games and series. sOs is the best at being crazy.Classic doesn’t have a specialty, but what he does have is the fact that he is probably the second or third best in every one of the categories all across the board. His safe standard play, his control, his positioning, his adaptation, his cheese are all comparable to the best of the best in each field. In a way Classic may be the most dangerous Protoss of them all.Difference between Classic and PartinG:Classic had a higher peak both in 2014 and 2015 and while PartinG had one additional year of being a top player in 2013, that wasn’t enough to make up the difference between Classic’s and PartinG’s results.





















