2011 S Class Players

With the end of the GSL3 round of 16, we now can say for certain who the S Class players will be for the 2011 season. Hopefully obvious, but there will be implied spoilers for the round of 16 in this post.

Player List

GSL 1 Quarterfinalists

• HongUnPrimeWE (P)
  
• MakaPrimeWE (T)
  
• NEXLiveForever (T)
  
• oGsEnsnare (T)
  
• oGsInca (P)
  
• STRainbOw (T)
  
• TSLFruitDealer (Z)
  
• TSLsSKS (P)
  

GSL 2 Quarterfinalists

• Already Qualified: STRainbOw (T)
  
• IMZenio (Z)
  
• KyrixZenith (Z)
  
• MarineKingPrimeWE (T)
  
• NSPGenius (P)
  
• oGsNaDa (T)
  
• oGsZenio (T)
  
• SlayerSBoxeR (T)
  

GSL 3 Quarterfinalists

• Already Qualified: HongUnPrimeWE (P)
  
• Already Qualified: IMNesTea (Z)
  
• Already Qualified: MarineKingPrimeWE (T)
  
• Already Qualified: TSLFruitDealer (Z)
  
• choyafOu (P)
  
• LiquidJinro (T)
  
• oGsMC (P)
  
• TSLRain (T)
  

Wild Card Spots (in points order)

• CheckPrimeWE (Z)
  
• EGIdrA (Z)
  
• LeenockfOu (Z)
  
• oGsTheWinD (Z)
  
• oGsHyperdub (T)
  
• PoltPrimeWE (T)
  
• TSLClide (T)
  
• sanZenith (P)
  
• imMVP (T)
  
• LegalMinDZenith (P)
  
• anyproPrimeWE (P)
  
• TheBestfOu (T)
  
• oGsJookTo (Z) AKA JookToJung
  

Race Breakdown

• Terran: 14 (43.75%)
  
• Zerg: 9 (28.13%)
  
• Protoss: 9 (28.13%)
  

About as even as could be hoped for, I think, given the wild swings in fortunes of various races throughout the three tournaments. Protoss in particular have yet to reach the semifinals but are well-represented here. Terran has a slight advantage, but that's to be expected given their relative success in all three tournaments.

Team Breakdown

• oGs: 8
  
• PrimeWE: 6
  
• TSL: 4
  
• ZeNEX: 4
  
• fOu: 3
  
• IM: 2
  
• EG: 1
  
• Liquid: 1
  
• NSP: 1
  
• SlayerS: 1
  
• StarTale: 1
  

Despite a disappointing GSL 3, oGs will be very happy to have ended up with the most S Class players. Prime is right behind them, not surprisingly. The most disappointed team has to be StarTale, who come off looking like they're just Rainbow and a bunch of scrubs. Note that SlayerS isn't really a team yet and NSP is just a clan and probably shouldn't even be on this list. NSPGenius will apparently be joining another team, presumably one of the ones already on this list, fairly soon. For all the team changes that have been going on, the players on this list to switch teams after the beginning of GSL 1 are LegalMind (who I don't believe was on ZeNEX immediately), Genius (leaving ZeNEX), and JookTo (leaving Jung for oGs). Of course the Zenith/NEX merger also happened in this timeframe, between GSL 1 and GSL 2 if I remember correctly. One sad note: despite qualifying a ton of players for GSL 1 and GSL 2 before disintegrating, no former WeRRa member managed to reach S Class.

Notable Players Left Out

In points order:

TankBoyPrimeWE - Came excruciatingly close but was the #33 player using GomTV's points scheme. Just qualifying for GSL 3 would have been enough to put him in and oGsJookTo out. His one consolation is that he can take another S Class players' spot if that player is unavailable for a tournament (has anyone heard if NEXLiveForever is going to be active again?).

STJuly - I don't think he tried to qualify for GSL 1, but he tried and failed in GSL 2, then got knocked out of GSL 3 in the round of 16 by oGsMC.

Loner - Looked great in GSL 2 before losing to SlayerSBoxeR, then failed to qualify for GSL 3.

oGsTOP - Has had some great performances in other tournaments but in the GSL world he's still going to be remembered as the Washington Generals to FruitDealer's Globetrotters in GSL 1.

TSLSangHo - Great comeback story and played well in GSL 2 before becoming one of MarineKing's many victims, but failed to qualify for GSL 3.

LiquidTLO - Had a very good shot at securing S Class had he qualified for GSL 3, but he went back to Germany before the tournament. I'm still hoping he'll fly out and take advantage of his A Class status.

FOXLyn - I believe he tried to qualify for GSL 1 and 2 but failed, then lost to Jinro in GSL 3. He has possibly the best excuse of anyone on this list: he's apparently still splitting his time between SC2 and WC3.

S Class Rankings

Thanks to Team Liquid forum poster sihyunie's translation, we finally have official word on how GomTV is calculating S Class. This is very overdue (not to be cynical, but the timing here suggests they waited to see how certain prominent players did before unveiling a points system that would make them S Class) but at least we can finally cut through all the misinformation that has been swirling around about this, like the silly rumor that GSL 1 qualifiers got some sort of bonus points that GSL 2 and 3 qualifiers didn't.

I feel like the system I used previously has been vindicated to some degree, since GomTV is also providing points for qualification, not just wins. However, the difference is that they have assigned point totals to each position:

Place	Points	Money (Won)
1	7000	100,000,000
2	4000	30,000,000
4	2500	10,000,000
8	1500	4,000,000
16	699	2,000,000
32	350	500,000
64	299	300,000

If there's a solid justification for the point assignments, I'd like to hear it. The ratios between the places are all different and don't even match the prize money allocation. But hey, at least we finally know for sure how this will work. In the TL thread there's a screenshot of a spreadsheet with the points after the first two tournments, but let's look at how things stack up for the top players when GSL 3 qualifications, and the 299 points these players get for making the round of 64, are taken into account (the numbers in the column headings are GSL seasons and P stands for points):

Rank	Player	Race	Team	1	1 P	2	2 P	3	3 P	Total
1	FruitDealer	Z	TSL	1	7000	32	350	64	299	7649
2	NesTea	Z	IM	64	299	1	7000	64	299	7598
3	Rainbow	T	ST	2	4000	4	2500	64	299	6799
4	Foxer	T	Prime	DNQ	0	2	4000	64	299	4299
5	Ensnare	T	oGs	4	2500	16	699	DNQ	0	3199
6	SlayerSBoxeR	T	sls	DNQ	0	4	2500	64	299	2799
7	LiveForever	T	ZeNEX	4	2500	DNQ	0	DNQ	0	2500
8	InCa	P	oGs	8	1500	16	699	DNQ	0	2199
9	Zenio	Z	oGs	32	350	8	1500	64	299	2149
10	Maka	T	Prime	8	1500	32	350	64	299	2149
11	Genius	P	ZeNEX	64	299	8	1500	64	299	2098
12	HongUn	P	Prime	8	1500	64	299	64	299	2098
13	Kyrix	Z	ZeNEX	DNQ	0	8	1500	64	299	1799
14	Check	Z	Prime	16	699	16	699	64	299	1697
15	NaDa	T	oGs	DNQ	0	8	1500	DNQ	0	1500
16	sSKS	P	TSL	8	1500	DNQ	0	DNQ	0	1500
17	IdrA	Z	EG	32	350	16	699	64	299	1348
18	TheWinD	Z	oGs	32	350	16	699	64	299	1348
19	Clide	T	TSL	16	699	64	299	64	299	1297
20	Hyperdub	T	oGs	16	699	64	299	64	299	1297
21	san	P	ZeNEX	16	699	32	350	DNQ	0	1049
22	LegalMinD	P	ZeNEX	16	699	64	299	DNQ	0	998
23	anypro	P	Prime	16	699	DNQ	0	64	299	998
24	jookToJung	Z		32	350	64	299	64	299	948
25	Polt	T	Prime	32	350	64	299	64	299	948
26	Tankboy	T	Prime	32	350	32	350	DNQ	0	700
27	Loner	T		DNQ	0	16	699	DNQ	0	699
28	TOP	T	oGs	16	699	DNQ	0	DNQ	0	699
29	SangHo	P	TSL	DNQ	0	16	699	DNQ	0	699

As you can see, Check has already vaulted over players like NaDa and is guaranteed to get S Class. IdrA is almost certain to get it even with a loss in the opening round, though a win will make it absolutely certain. Even for players who have already clinched, there's an excellent chance these points rankings will be used for seeding in the 2011 tournaments, so there's incentive to push up the list. Remember, anyone on this list who is still active in GSL 3 could possibly end up being #1 by the end of the tournament. I'll keep posting updated rankings as GSL 3 moves forward.

GSL 3: Qualification Statistics

Race Breakdown

GSL 3 qualifying players by race: 26 Zerg, 25 Terran, 12 Protoss, 1 Random.

Obviously a historical comparison is in order:

The biggest news from the GSL 3 qualifiers was the race breakdown. Protoss has gone from having the most players in GSL 1 to having the least players in GSL 3. Combine that with the fact that no Protoss reached the semifinals in either GSL 1 or GSL 2 and there's some very unhappy Protoss fans out there. Certainly the change in Zerg's fortunes has to be at least partially attributed to changes from Blizzard's patching. It should also be noted that two of the maps used in every best of 3 match in the qualifiers (X'el Naga Caverns, Metalopolis, and Scrap Station) are considered to be Zerg-favored, at least in ZvP.

Blizzard likes to make long posts with lots of numbers about balance, but they improved Zerg even when their numbers didn't quite justify it, and I assume it was because of the poor Zerg numbers in GSL 1. It'll be interesting to see if they act to help Protoss given the GSL 3 situation, especially since their recent statistics post indicated Protoss is doing quite well below the very top level. And if Blizzard does patch balance again, will they do it during GSL 3?

Finally, enjoy the fact there's a Random player while you can. This is the first time someone has made it to this level playing Random and it's very likely to be the last.

Team Breakdown

As always, you have to take the team numbers with a grain of salt because the information we get in the English-speaking world about the shifting allegiances of Korean players is a little patchy. But of the teams still active in GSL 3, here's my best attempt at a count of how many players from each team qualified for each GSL:

Team	GSL1	GSL2	GSL3
ZeNEX	11	11	10
Prime	15	7	8
fOu	0	5	7
oGs	9	8	5
StarTale	1	2	5
TSL	3	4	4
IM	2	4	4
TeamLiquid	1	1	3
sls	0	1	2
EG	1	1	1
fnatic	0	0	1

oGs clearly had a tough time, with several very good players like oGsNada, oGsInCa, and oGsTOP failing to qualify. But the larger picture is very positive. The players are much more evenly spread between the various teams than ever before. Partly this is because of the scattering of WeRRa players, but mostly I think this is just a natural stabilization process. We'll have to see how the quality shakes out, but with every team except perhaps fOu having at least one or two strong players, it's my feeling the quality is evening out as well.

Experience Breakdown

The final consideration is experience. 23 players from GSL 1 qualified for GSL 2. Of those who qualified for GSL 3, 15 played in either GSL 1 or 2, and 14 played in both, for a total of 29 GSL veterans. The fact that's still less than half shows the SC2 world has yet to stratify, but I think that's a good thing. There's a lot of churn in the lower ranks, but hopefully that allows unheralded players like Kyrix and Foxer to emerge instead of leaving us with just the same players who've been winning tournaments since the beta. Right now the structure of the 2011 tournaments is still a little unclear, but I hope there'll be a lot of avenues for players who don't make S or A Class to compete with the best.

I'm going to list the 14 players who have qualified for all three GSLs since that's such an impressive achievement:

TSLFruitDealer (Z)
IMNesTea (Z)
jookToJung (Z)
EGIdrA (Z)
CheckPrime (Z)
NsPGenius (P)
STRainbow (T)
oGsMC (P)
oGsZenio (Z)
oGsHyperdub (T)
TSLClide (T)
MakaPrime (T)
HongUnPrime (P)
oGsTheWind (Z)

That's 7 Zergs, 4 Terrans, and 3 Protoss representing at least 7 different teams (I'm not sure of jookToJung's affiliation, if any): oGs, Prime, TSL, ST, ZeNEX, IM, and EG. Only half of them have reached the quarterfinals in either GSL 1 or GSL 2 and thus assured themselves of S Class, but you can bet many of the rest--if not all--will also get that status at some point during GSL 3.

Ranking the Teams

The SC2 scene is still just getting started, but a surprising number of GSL participants are on teams. This raises the question: which team is doing the best? Well, TSL's Fruit Dealer won the first tournament, so that's a good start. But that only takes you so far. GSL 2 is going to be won by either a Prime player (Foxer) or an IM player (NesTea), and in any case there's more to consider than just the overall victor.

I've taken the points system I used to see who was on the bubble for S Class (you can see the details here but basically it amounts to a point for qualifying for the GSL and a point for each match won) and added up the totals for each team. Now, a caveat. My information about who is on what team isn't perfect. I knew about a third of the players either from memory or from their ID and filled in the rest using Team Liquid's player database, so it's about as close as we can get in the English speaking world. But teams aren't static. I'm pretty sure Happiness left TSL by the time he played in GSL 2, for example. Then there's the fact NEX and Zenith were separate teams for GSL 1 and joined for GSL 2. Worst of all, WeRRa has disintigrated due to a horrifying scandal and its players are scattering.

All that said, ranking the teams is fun, so I'm doing it anyway. Here's what I've got:

Team	GSL 1 Players	GSL 2 Players	GSL 1 Points	GSL 2 Points	PPP GSL1	PPP GSL 2	Total PPP	Total Points
Prime	16	8	32	17	2	2.13	2.04	49
oGs	9	8	22	22	2.44	2.75	2.59	44
ZeNex	10	10	19	18	1.9	1.8	1.85	37
No Team	8	12	11	21	1.38	1.75	1.6	32
WeRRa	11	8	14	10	1.27	1.25	1.26	24
TSL	3	4	14	7	4.67	1.75	3	21
StarTale	1	2	6	7	6	3.5	4.33	13
IM	2	4	2	11	1	2.75	2.17	13
fOu	0	5	0	8	-	1.6	1.6	8
EG	1	1	2	3	2	3	2.5	5
TeamLiquid	1	1	2	1	2	1	1.5	3
FnaticMSI	1	0	1	0	1	-	1	1
mYm	1	0	1	0	1	-	1	1
vT	1	0	1	0	1	-	1	1
WeMade FOX	0	1	0	1	-	1	1	1

"PPP" stands for Points Per Player. "Total PPP" is total points divided by total players, not a sum of the tournament scores. I sorted by Total Points since I think this represents the overall strength of the team best, however.

Quick thoughts:

• Although Prime scrapes by oGs on total points, the margin comes from their players who qualified for GSL 1 and didn't win. oGs had a better average in both tournaments.
• You'd expect the number of players without teams to be declining, but in fact it went up in GSL 2. Perhaps this is because newer players are still getting picked up...I don't think that LegalMind was on Prime until he started doing well in GSL 1, for example, but he's Prime for both tournaments in these numbers.
• Prime and oGs both improved their average points between GSL 1 and GSL 2, but ZeNex surprisingly dropped slightly despite both the merger combining the practices and not having their best player lose to DAVIT.
• Although it did have one other player (Ace) in GSL 2, StarTale basically wins the battle of the one man teams on the strength of the individual points leader, HopeTorture. With the exception of vT and mYm, I think all of these teams will have more players for GSL 3, at least for qualifying.

S Class: The Wild Card Race

Only the first three GSL tournaments, the so-called preseason tournaments, will be unseeded. In 2011, players will be grouped into "S Class", "A Class", and unseeded groups. Exactly how all this will work hasn't been spelled out, but already players like SlayerSBoxeR and NaDa have mentioned S Class in interviews as an important goal.  Although many have it already, a number of prominent players are going into GSL 3 still looking to earn the designation, players like EGIdrA, TSLClide, LiquidTLO, and oGsTOP.

Here's what we know for sure:

• There will be 32 S Class players and 64 A Class players.
• The rankings will be based on performance in GSL 1-3.
• Making the quarterfinals in any of the three GSL tournaments guarantees S Class

This means that 15 players have already earned S Class by reaching the quarterfinals in GSL 1 or GSL 2.

GSL 1 quarterfinalists: HongUnPrime, NEXLiveForever, MakaPrime, oGsEnsnare, oGsInCa, StHopeTorture, TSLFruitDealer, TSLsSKS
GSL 2 quarterfinalists: FoxerPrime, KyrixZenith, NesTea, NEXGenius, oGsNada, oGsZenio, SlayerSBoxeR, StHopeTorture

Note that although there were 16 quarterfinalists, StHopeTorture made the quarterfinals in both tournaments (surprisingly, the only one to do so) so there are only 15 players who have clinched.

Racial Breakdown of S Class so far: 7 Terrans, 4 Zerg, 4 Protoss
Team Breakdown of S Class so far: 4 oGs, 3 Prime, 3 ZeNEX, 2 TSL, 1 IM, 1 ST, 1 unaligned

Now, depending on how many of these players make it to the GSL 3 quarterfinals, there could be anywhere from 8 to 17 "wild card" S Class players who never make the quarterfinals but are awarded the designation anyway.  Given the fact only 1 person has repeated so far, I'd guess there will be about 12 wild card spots.  Unfortunately GomTV hasn't specified exactly what formula they plan to use, but I'm guessing it will be similar to their ranking system, which promotes players after each match won.  To come up with the Wild Card leaderboard below I've tweaked this slightly: I award players one point for a win, but I also award them 1 point for qualifying for the round of 64 in a GSL tournament.  GomTV doesn't do this for their ranks, but I think it's only fair that players are rewarded for making it through qualifying since that's getting harder and harder to do.

Here are the players with at least 3 points in my system:

Player	Race	GSL1	GSL2	Points
CheckPrime	Z	3	3	6
EGIdrA	Z	2	3	5
oGsTheWinD	Z	2	3	5
sanZenith	P	3	2	5
TankboyPrime	T	2	2	4
TSLClide	T	3	1	4
LegalMind	P	3	1	4
oGsHyperdub	T	3	1	4
TSLSangHo	P	0	3	3
Loner	T	0	3	3
Leenock	Z	0	3	3
oGsMC	P	1	2	3
jookToJung	Z	2	1	3
PoltPrime	T	2	1	3
ReXZanDarke	P	2	1	3
LiquidTLO	T	2	1	3
AnyproPrime	P	3	0	3
LotzePrime	P	3	0	3
oGsTOP	T	3	0	3

Check's position seems unassailable, and IdrA's looks very solid as well. If we knew the exact algorithm GomTV was using, we could probably show that Check is mathematically guaranteed S Class, and perhaps the 5 point players as well. As it is, we'll say they all have excellent chances.

If players on 3 points like TLO, Loner, TOP, etc. fail to qualify for GSL 3 then they are going to have to hope for a ton of repeat quarterfinalists and then possibly some help from the tiebreaking system. For players who've yet to qualify like the other Team Liquid players, Sen, etc. it looks like they'll probably have to get a quarterfinal spot in GSL 3 to have a chance.

Note that if I'm wrong and GomTV doesn't give credit for making the round of 64, that's good news for AnyPro, Lotze, and TOP, but it also means they could be overtaken by first-qualifiers in GSL 3, so they still need to qualify. No matter what, the GSL 3 qualifiers are going to be more important than ever for all these players.