Quote from: RJBTV on April 28, 2024, 02:32:23 pm

make it top 4.

Why would anybody want a smaller tourney? lol

Make it 3.

jokes aside.
Riddick donated the most money, he should have the most say in what kind of tournament happens. But I do feel like the highest ranked few should get some benefit out of being ranked higher than the others in the top 8.

In the past we had some gauntlet tournaments where it was 8 vs 7, winner vs 6, winner vs 5, winner vs 4, winner vs 3, winner vs 2, winner vs 1. This way placement on the ladder actually comes with a benefit.

If its a straight up standard top 8 tournament being a higher rank on the ladder comes with no benefits which somewhat nullifies the incentive to place higher. It means rank 1 gets the exact same thing as being rank 8, yet rank 1 has 840 more points than rank 8. There should be some benefit to being ranked higher to incentivize putting in more games and to reward actually winning more matches.

A 6 player tournament would allow rank 1 and 2 to skip round 1 of the tournament and hence get a benefit out of being ranked higher. 10 player tournament would achieve the same effect.

Another format for 8 player tournament could be to have 2 groups of 3 consisting of players ranked 3 to 8. In each group they each play one another once in a best of 5. This should result in one player per group coming out in 1st. This player then proceeds to the bracket stage where the top 4 players(rank 1 and 2 are already placed here) and play out the semi-finals and the finals.

Top 6 with top 2 starting in Semi-Finals


6 vs 3     vs 1       winner vs winner
5 vs 4     vs 2

This way top 2 gets rewarded for being top 2.

Valks are great but the AOE from Valks doesn't splash onto other interceptors. They're mainly awesome against carrier micro because the interceptors return to the carrier which causes massive damage from the Valkyrie halo rockets onto the carriers. But against regular attack move split carriers Valkyries are a great tool to just hang in the back on HOLD position where they are outside of carrier range.

Really good combination options are EMP+valkyrie. EMP+Valkyrie+Ghost lockdown. EMP+goliaths+Ghost lockdown. You can if you're not rich enough to afford the massive transition to Valkyrie stick to marined medic for a short bit because interceptors die very quickly to stimmed marines with 1-3 attack upgrade.

Fastest meta changed a lot. For years Kokanee was the number 1 player until LovelyRabbit came over and they shared the top 1 spot on original, with uplus right behind them. This was during UGL. Rabbit introduced different build orders and playstyles.

When UGL ended and SCW started and everyone switched to BW and more koreans showed up. The best few korean streamers came over and they for a lack of better wording completely destroyed SCW at the time. Inbusjaja aka GangNamLife, LovelyRabbit(medium streamer), HankookBBalmu aka Shin(big streamer), Brain(big streamer). They played such a different style with way more focus on aggression and micro that everyone started to adapt build orders a bit and playstyles.

GoldSCV(whiteandblack) showed up in like SCW 6 but had trouble adjusting to the map at first. JH(uplus) also returned around that time and they shared the top 3 ranks with Kokanee, but Goldscv and JH were without question better. GoldSCV and JH kept developing and outgrew Kokanee in a couple seasons. Thanks, a korean low money player showed up and had some very dominant hyper aggressive mico focused seasons. His late game was also crazy good. He quit for a while and never got back into shape. Then Scan, a professional korean played a couple seasons and immediately competed at the top of SCW with extremely good micro focused play. Around this time Byul also started playing SCW and JH played his last season. GOldscv renamed to WhiteandBlack and kept getting better.

Hydra also returned and got knocked around pretty badly by JH, Scan, WhiteandBlack and Byul until he was the first to really adapt to the Korean playstyle that until then nobody had adjusted to. Since then Hydra's been without question the best non-korean player. But because koreans play A LOT on korean server vs extremely good players they get way more practice in against the best players in the world. Like if you had to Rank Hydra including the Koreans from the Korean server he'd rank somewhere in in the top 20-25 in early game but top 15 in late game.

If you had to make an all time best list including koreans from the korean server the list would be something like:
Brain > Gensay > Burgersasu > LuckyBack > 458!!!(protoss) > Byul > Shin > Mong(professional) > Flash(professional) > Light(professional) > WhiteandBlack > Mepo > GangNamLife > LovelyRabbit > JH > Scan(professional) > Dorom > Henessy > Levi > Question > By_Zone > SH > Bame >Trisha > Niture > BomBi >By_Cong > Hydra.

Burgersasu:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2untV6RHYn-FMJe1JZyi-g
Gensay:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqVyNMZZBh-6VPx1KXiphQ
Brain:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqlcSsDNMYxEsem7bWY-66Q
Shin:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-okJdotaXPlzivRzHFqzuA
Toki:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFJcNk4d6M_dVx2nh9jsp1A/featured
Niture:
https://www.youtube.com/@niture

Byul:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/ByuL
https://www.youtube.com/@user-fc8tc6dh2n
Doromi:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Tinkle
Brain:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Brain
Scan:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Scan
Light:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Light
Flash:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Flash
Mong:
https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Mong

Check out the game by DeD_ Gensay and LovelyRabbit here. They are the best 2vs2 team to play SCW ever. DeD_GoM and DeD_Dorom without a doubt second best team. After that I'd say Hydra+Evil or Hyda+Gohan are the best, but there is a gap.
https://www.starcraftworld.net/index.php?action=league&mode=2v2standings&season=62

Out of currently and recently active players:
Early:
Byul > WhiteandBlack >>> Hydra > EviL > Thanathoz > DefjaM > Gohan > QlolQ
Late: WhiteandBlack >> Byul/Hydra > EviL > DefJaM > Gohan > Thanathoz > DingO

those were good matches!

playing starcraft after a workout might actually impede on your ability to play your best. If an exercise requires a certain degree of grip you can impede on your ability to accurately and precisely use your mouse or keyboard for a fair bit. Overall fitness won't improve your physical playing ability but will improve your longevity.

But there are benefits to working out that might improve your mental state and that could result in improved performance.

There's some ways exercise can affect your brain however:
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/features/physical-activity-brain-health/index.html#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20it's%20good,of%20cognitive%20decline%2C%20including%20dementia.

Quote from: RJBTV on November 18, 2023, 11:39:25 am

I think folks misunderstood my comment.
I got Hydra rated pretty high on my list. Hydra has the skill to put on a proactive exciting game, but decided to play it lame and boring by just turtling for almost the entire game. Most of his attacks were spot abuse with sometimes a not controlled attack move on Brain's choke. Hydra is better than what he showed in that PvP. He played it lame and boring. He is better than that in terms of skill. I was disappointed that he decided not to show it. Because he finally got a chance to show off against the best of all time in front of a large audience and didn't take it.

As a matter of personal opinion, I will have to defend HyDrA and wholeheartedly disagree with this line of thinking. When the game becomes about entertaining the audience and not about doing whatever you think is best in order to attain victory, we've strayed away from what the game is supposed to be and that's a huge problem. I don't imagine that pleasing Brain's viewership was on the top of HyDrA's list of priorities. Imagine being told not only to worry just about your opponent's possible moves to get ahead or to take over the game, but whether or not you are entertaining their audience quite enough - its all ridiculous. I like to say that observers have no rights, which includes the lack of right to be entertained. And this doesn't change regardless of whether there's five observers or five hundred. Some games are exciting to watch, some are boring - if you can't handle the occasional boring turtle game, then maybe you're observing the wrong game.

I talked with hydra about it. He agreed he played way too defensive and passive after watching the replay. You do raise a fair point. Does not make it less lame.