#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time (2024)

The Greatest Players of All Time

By: Mizenhauer

• 7x GSL Code S titles + 8x other Liquipedia-premier titles
• Recorded three of the most dominant Proleague seasons
• Over ten uninterrupted years as a top-tier player

Notable Tournament Finishes:

• 2013 OnGameNet Starleague: 1st place
  
• 2015 IEM Taipei: 2nd place
  
• 2015 StarCraft II Starleague: 1st place
  
• 2016 World Electronic Sports Games: 2nd place
  
• 2018 World Electronic Sports Games: 1st place
  
• 2018 Code S Season 1: 1st place
  
• 2018 Code S Season 2: 1st place
  
• 2018 Code S Season 3: 1st place
  
• 2019 Code S Season 1: 1st place
  
• 2020 GSL Super Tournament #1: 1st place
  
• 2020 King of Battles #1: 1st place
  
• 2020 Code S Season 3: 2nd place
  
• 2021 Code S Season 1: 2nd place
  
• 2021 DHM Summer Season Finals: 2nd place
  
• 2021 King of Battles #2: 1st place
  
• 2021 DHM Winter Season Finals: 1st place
  
• 2021 GSL Super Tournament #3: 2nd place
  
• 2022 DHM Last Chance: 1st place
  
• 2022 DHM Valencia: 2nd place
  
• 2022 Code S Season 2: 2nd place
  
• 2022 TeamLiquid Starleague 9: 2nd place
  
• 2022 Code S Season 3: 1st place
  
• 2023 IEM Katowice: 2nd place
  
• 2023 Code S Season 1: 1st place
  
• 2023 Code S Season 2: 1st place
  
• 2024 IEM Katowice: 2nd place

Finally, we have arrived at the highest seat in the pantheon of StarCraft II. Maru reigns over all others with seven Code S championships, the only Code S/OSL/SSL triple crown in history, and one of the most outstanding Proleague careers. Maru's GSL exploits are the sort that were once thought to be impossible, setting a legendary bar for greatness in the game's most storied competition.

But beyond these tournament accolades, Maru's most astonishing feat is that he has remained in the top tier of the professional scene for over a decade. Ever since he first rose to championship contention in 2013, at no point would anyone have dared to question Maru's status as one of the best players in the world.

Through two expansions, dozens of patches, and hundreds of maps, Maru has not only remained competitive—he has thrived. Prodigious mechanics helped him achieve this incredible longevity, but he also possesses adaptability that surpasses all of his peers. He evolved his playstyle numerous times, changing from a cheesy micro specialist, to master of the mid-game onslaught, to the best late-game turtle player we've ever seen. Maru took whatever shape was ideal at any given moment, allowing him to dictate metas, improve on metas, or even invent new ones altogether.

In a list such as this, every player achieved something that makes them stand out among the rest. Mvp was the most dominant player in a single era. Rogue was the most dangerous best-of-seven player. Serral has won the most universal praise from his peers in his own time. But the most impressive and irreplicable of all those feats is Maru's decade-long run at the pinnacle of StarCraft II. As the years go on and one legend after another retires, Maru remains standing as the Greatest of All Time.

Career Overview: Alpha and the Omega

In fitting fashion for the #1 player on this list, Maru is the sole player in the top ten who competed in StarCraft II starting in the very first GSL.

Maru's talent was apparent at a very early age, as evidenced by his brief stint as an SK Telecom T1 Brood War trainee when he was just 10-years-old. While Maru did not want to commit fully at that time, the later release of StarCraft II gave Maru an opportunity to start pursuing progaming in earnest when he was thirteen.

Initially, Maru struggled to make an impact with anything but his youthful countenance, as he finished in the top 32 (out of 2010) of the first GSL Open Season held during August-October of 2010. While Maru would have opportunities to keep showing his talent as a member of PRIME in the GSTL and various other team competitions, his solo career would remain stalled until 2012. Only then would he finally escape from the depths of Code A and win Code S status, qualifying for three out of five seasons that year. Still, it was just a minor step forward for Maru, whose best Code S finish for all of Wings of Liberty would be a solitary RO16 in Season 2 of 2012.

Oh, how the kids grow up…

The release of Heart of the Swarm in early 2013 brought massive change to the StarCraft II scene, including Maru's breakout as a championship-caliber player. His first tournament in the new expansion went poorly, as he was eliminated in the RO32 of the inaugural HotS Code S. However, just a few months later in the 2013 OnGameNet Starleague, he showed the StarCraft II world an entirely new version of himself.

Neither of Maru's group stage performances were particularly convincing in terms of record, as he advanced with a 2-1 match score in both the RO32 and RO16 (the OSL sticking to its traditional 4-player round-robin format). In fact, he only recorded a 4-4 map score in the RO16, but advanced in first place due to OSL's archaic rule of using head-to-head as the first tiebreaker.

However, once he reached the playoffs, Maru went on an underdog run for the ages. His RO8 opponent was Symbol, who had been a Code S runner-up in WoL and had (partially) beaten the patchzerg allegations with a top four finish in the first HotS Code S. Maru overwhelmed his far more accomplished opponent with mass Marine-Marauder-Mine, taking the 3-1 victory.

Things got much, much harder in the RO4, as Maru faced off against the monster known as 2013 INnoVation. While Maru was in the midst of the first notable run of his career, the Machine Terran was riding high after finishing second place in Code S and winning the WCS Season 1 cross-regional final. Aside from his results, INnoVation's overpowering play made many fans consider him the clear best in the world (refer to our INnoVation GOAT article), making Maru an enormous underdog in comparison. Yet, despite garnering a mere 7% of the Liquibet votes, Maru pulled off one of the biggest upsets in early SC2 history by all-inning his way to a 4-0 sweep (the legend of Maru's proxy-Barracks began here).

Defying the odds twice had earned Maru some limited credit, but he remained the underdog headed into the finals. His opponent Rain was less than a year removed from winning the first StarCraft II OSL in WoL, and despite a slightly rocky transition to HotS, had far more cachet in the scene. This time, Maru garnered just under 30% of the Liquibet votes—his upset potential had to be respected, but he remained far from being the favorite.

The first three games seemed to expose Maru as nothing but a dastardly cheeser, with Rain winning the first two games with rock-solid macro play while giving up game three to Maru's proxy-Barracks cheese. However, Maru showed the true depth of his abilities in game four, defeating Rain straight-up in an 'honorable' macro game (though it would not totally convince fans at the time). Something about that tying victory seemed to sap all of Rain's verve, who opted to try aggressive strategies of his own in games five and six. Maru defended with aplomb both times, completing the quasi-reverse-sweep to win the first major championship of his career.

Maru showed he was no flash in the pan in the following months, as he went on to take a semifinals finish in four out of his next five competitions—including the very first WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon (losing 1-3 to Jaedong in the semis). Within a matter of months, Maru had established himself as a top player in the scene, and belatedly joined TaeJa and Life as one of the key players to watch in StarCraft's next generation.

Unsurprisingly, KeSPA came to pluck the rising star away from the ailing eSports Federation (the group of endemic SC2 teams from before the KeSPA transition), and Maru was signed by Jin Air Green Wings just before the start of the 2014 season. On the face of it, Maru's individual league results took a step back following his move, as he went RO8–RO4–RO16 in three Code S Seasons that year. While that may have had something to do with him adjusting to KeSPA's Proleague-centric environment, it should be noted that 2014 was simply a wretched year for all Terrans in Korea (Code S Season 1 had a damning 16/13/3 racial split). Besides INnoVation, who went Not-qualified–RO16–Champion in Code S that year, Maru was actually the second best Terran performer in individual leagues. Unfortunately for the fans, Maru's results weren't enough to qualify him for a return to BlizzCon, as the WCS Europe and America regions awarded equal WCS points to the GSL in the period's format.

As for the 2014 Proleague—or "PvProleague" as it was known at the time—Maru fully delivered on Jin Air's expectations with a stunning debut season where he went 30-19 in games and won the Rookie of the year award (Jin Air's collective performance in the playoffs was lackluster and they finished in 4th place). This was the height of the Blink-Stalker era, where the Mothership Core and favorable maps made most Terrans live in fear of imminent death, but Maru somehow thrived in this environment.

So how did he do it? At the time, Terrans were basically relying on two-base Tank-push all-ins if they could avoid taking early damage, because fighting against Protoss deathballs in the late-game felt just as pointless. Maru was one of the few players with the micro, macro, and multi-tasking to keep the splash-damage Exodia from coming together with his constant attacks, and maybe even win in a head-on deathball collision thanks to his tremendous combat ability.

Do you miss Proleague? I miss Proleague.

If Maru's 2014 was disappointing from a 'quick glance at the Liquipedia timeline' perspective, he came back in 2015 with a year that was just as good in terms of gameplay AND saw him fill up his tournament resume as well. His first podium finish of the year came at IEM Taipei (IEM tended to have very inconsistent roster strength at this time, but this was one of the tougher tournaments), where he barely settled for a second place finish with a 3-4 loss to Life. Maru's momentum carried on to the newly created Korean major, the StarCraft II Starleague held by SpoTV. He got off to an unassuming start after ceding first place in his RO16 group to the newly rising Terran Dream, but he showed his full quality in the playoffs. After defeating Leenock (3-0) and Stats (4-2) in the first two rounds, Maru avenged his group stage loss to Dream with a crushing 4-1 victory and claimed the second piece of the domestic 'triple crown' (OSL/Code S/SSL).

Maru slowed down in individual leagues for the rest of the year, repeating his Code S 2014 campaign with RO16-RO8-RO4 results while finishing RO8-RO16 in the next two SSL tournaments. These results were more than enough to earn him a spot at the 2015 WCS Global Finals, but his comeback tournament was a dud. Rogue, who was in the midst of his first notable run, ended up upsetting his Jin Air teammate in a 3-0 sweep.

In 2015 Proleague, Maru was yet again one of the best players in the entire competition. He finished the season with a 27-16 record that was near the top of the league, and helped Jin Air to a second place finish thanks to a strong showing from the rest of the roster in the playoffs. Even though Terran didn't struggle quite as hard as in 2014, Maru's boundary-pushing play throughout 2015 saw him earn one of his nicknames: "the fourth race."

2016 would see the game change over to Legacy of the Void, and bring with it Maru's first major setback year—at least in terms of individual tournament results. In Proleague, he actually had his best season ever, putting up a ridiculous 22-4 record as he led Jin Air to their first Proleague title in history (their only major title in anything even when you throw in six odd years of League of Legends). However, Maru struggled greatly in individual competition. Despite recording the single most dominant season in the history of SC2 Proleague, he went 1-for-5 in SSL/GSL qualification, with his one Code S appearance ending in RO16 elimination. Overall, it was a very difficult year to rate in Maru's career, where he achieved the ultimate success in one half of SC2 competition while falling utterly flat in the other.

Maru is awarded finals MVP in the final season of Proleague.

Even with Proleague dissolving and fading into history, Maru had another complicated year in 2017. Things began with a second place finish at the WESG main event in January, where Maru lost 3-4 to TY (the other best Terran in the at the time) in the finals. While it was 'only' a runner-up finish, the massive $100,000 prize still marked the single biggest payout in his career up to that point. As for domestic leagues, Maru made a modest rebound with some middle-of-the road showings, going RO8-RO4-RO32 in three seasons of Code S while finishing 7th and 6th in two seasons of SSL (which was played in a peculiar 10-player format that year).

While no one would call this a bad year, it couldn't help but feel rather lukewarm outside the massive prize money haul at WESG. Maru’s peak ability was never in doubt, but two years removed from his victory in SSL and four years removed from his win in OSL, it felt like he was underachieving compared to his clear, best-in-the-world potential. Even though he had three stellar years of Proleague to his credit, players like INnoVation, Zest, and sOs had enjoyed similar levels of teamleague success while outshining him in individual competitions. Maru was only 20-years-old as 2017 came to a close, which left him plenty of time to attain his rightful standing in StarCraft II. However, not even the most deluded Maru fan could have dreamed of what he was about to achieve.

The legendary back-to-back-to-back-to-back Code S run began in Season 1 of 2018. In a throwback to his OSL and SSL titles, Maru was somewhat shaky in the early going, coming out of both his RO32 and RO16 groups in second place. Even his RO8 match was a close call, as he narrowly beat teammate sOs by a 3-2 score (sOs was historically one of the players who has given Maru the most trouble).

Here, the Code S took an unusually long interlude for IEM Katowice and WESG, which turned out to be an important turning point in Maru's year. While his Code S games had revolved around early/mid-game play, he took this pair of mega-internationals as an opportunity to demonstrate his newfound mastery over the late-game and unique understanding of the recently patched Raven. This version of Maru looked like the most complete one ever, still fond of nasty cheeses in the early-game, still possessing unmatched mid-game aggression, and now nigh invincible in the late game due to the might of anti-armor missiles. Maru used this toolset to earn a top four finish at IEM Katowice (losing 2-3 to Rogue in the semis), and a week later, he claimed the $200,000 grand prize at WESG after storming through a playoff gauntlet of Reynor (3-0), Serral (3-0), and Dark (4-3).

This stretch of play brought us the infamous saying of "just play like Maru," with Maru looking like the only Terran who could compete at a championship level at the time. He affirmed that this was indeed the case when Code S resumed. The final two rounds saw Maru tear through both Dark (4-2) and Stats (4-2)—two of the best players of their respective races at the time—to win his first Code S title and complete the OSL/SSL/Code S triple.

While Maru had to fight hard to win his first Code S title (19-10 total map record), he was far more dominant in Code S Season 2 (even with Blizzard deploying a 'Maru patch' midway through the season to nerf anti-armor missiles). He topped both of his groups in the opening rounds, before overcoming Rogue 3-2 in a quarterfinal bout which would be his hardest series of the tournament. After that, he brutally crushed his remaining two opponents, defeating Classic 4-1 in the semis before sweeping Zest 4-0 in one of the fastest Code S finals in history (around 33 minutes of total game time).

Just by winning two Code S titles back to back, Maru reached a historic milestone. Previously, Nestea had been the only previous player to win back-to-back Code S championships, achieving that feat in the hoary era of 2011. Maru wouldn't be content with a mere tie, however, as he'd go on to seize the all-time record with an incredible three-peat.

Having finished Season 2 with a 19-4 record, Maru put in a similarly imperious performance in Code S Season 3. While he 'disappointed' by dropping a couple of maps in the group stage, he smashed GuMiho (3-0) and Zest (4-1) in the playoffs to get his tournament win-rate back over 80%. Having breezed through the event up until the finals, Maru was met with what must have felt like a surprisingly tough challenge in the form of TY. Maru actually fell to a two-game deficit against an equal master of TvT, and his aura of invincibility briefly seemed like it was in danger of shattering. However, Maru showed he could be just as clutch as he could be dominating, and he eked out a 4-3 victory with a barely successful two-base all-in in game seven.

This victory saw Maru tie or break even more GSL records, changing the entire narrative of the tournament in the process. He had tied Nestea and INnoVation for total Code S titles, and stood alone as the player with three championships won in a row. If the sole, unchallengeable symbol of GSL greatness had previously been Mvp, Maru was now within striking distance of the old legend. In this context, Maru's gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games—which was utterly perfunctory in terms of in-game challenge—had some extra symbolic value, like the bygone WCG's that anointed players like Boxer, iloveoov, Jaedong, and Mvp himself as greats of their time.

Despite his historic accomplishments in Code S, Maru's performances in other tournaments were more of a mixed bag. While he did hit paydirt in WESG, he 'only' reached the top four of IEM Katowice as mentioned above, and repeated that RO4 finish in GSL vs. The World 2018. He was also lackluster in the two GSL Super Tournaments held that year, dropping out in the RO8 both times. These would have been good, even great results for many other players. But Maru's Code S success set the bar so high that anything but a championship started to feel unacceptable.

Unfortunately for Maru, he couldn't deliver on those expectations at the 2018 WCS Global Finals. A titanic finals clash between Maru and Serral seemed obvious considering their paths to BlizzCon, but Maru failed to make his date with destiny after being stunned by sOs' black magic in the quarterfinals and giving up a 0-3 sweep.

Both in real life and in-game, sOs proved to be a tricky opponent for Maru.

That anticlimactic ending may be the lasting memory for some fans, but Maru's 2018 campaign was still unquestionably the greatest single year from a Korean-region player. He won Code S three times, won four out of nine Liquipedia-premier events he played in overall, all while posting a ridiculous 51-12 record in offline matches.

BlizzCon 2018 may have momentarily slowed the hype train around Maru, but he wasn't done setting records in the GSL competition. He picked up where he left off in 2019's Season 1, once again going down the warpath to the grand finals. This time, his playoff match-ups were all TvP, and he dispatched Dear , Trap, and Classic with brutal efficiency to win his fourth Code S championship (the Trap series was particularly ruthless, with Maru taking a 4-0 sweep in around 27 minutes of game time).

With his fourth straight Code S championship, Maru tied soO for most consecutive finals appearances in Code S, surpassed Nestea for number of Code S titles, and was now just one championship away from claiming the G5L trophy originally meant for Mvp. It would have felt like a groundbreaking moment in StarCraft II history if it didn't also feel so inevitable—any number of wins seemed possible given the way Maru was playing in Code S.

Realistically speaking, Maru had already surpassed Mvp by that point. Mvp's "4 GSL titles" actually included one of the easier GSL World Championship events, whereas Maru had won all of his titles in Code S. Even so, GomTV/AfreecaTV weren't about to retcon their own history for Maru's sake—winning the G5L was the only way he would completely and undeniably surpass Mvp as the greatest GSL player of all time.

After this torrid fifteen-month run, Maru's momentum finally gave out. In truth, some of the cracks had already started to show in the middle of his fourth Code S championship campaign, when IEM Katowice and WESG were once again held during a break in the GSL season. At WESG, Maru was held to a top four finish by eventual champion INnoVation, while at IEM Katowice 2019, he suffered an alarming RO24 elimination (losses to Trap, Leenock, and Neeb). All this came to a head in Code S Season 2, when the unprecedented winning streak abruptly ended in the RO32 with losses to Patience and INnoVation.

No dominant run lasts forever, and there was some acceptance that came along with the surprise (Patience, really?). However, with Maru having reached such a high peak in 2018, it felt like it would only be a matter of time until he came back just as strong as before, and won the G5L trophy that had been unclaimed since 2012. In the end, it was indeed a "matter of time," but that time was longer than some may have expected.

The remainder of 2019 had few results of note for Maru, with a RO4 finish in Code S Season 3 being his best mark. He was eliminated in the first round of all the "weekender"-style GSL tournaments—two Super Tournaments and GSL vs. the World—and repeated his 2018 BlizzCon disappointment with another RO8 finish in the 2019 edition of the tournament (getting swept by eventual champion Dark).

2020 turned out to be a 'great for almost anyone else, but just okay for Maru' year. He started with a solid top four finish at IEM Katowice, losing 2-3 in the semifinals to eventual champion Rogue. Curiously, Maru followed up by winning GSL Super Tournament 1—a tournament he had previously been unusually poor in—with a great run that includes wins over Stats, INnoVation, Solar and Dark. However, this did not portend a return to form in Code S, as he would be held to RO8 and RO16 finishes in the first two seasons of the year.

The third and last Code S of 2020 saw Maru return to something resembling his old self, as he made his first finals run in over year. After taking down Trap and Armani in the playoffs, Maru came face to face with TY for a rematch from their GSL finals duel in 2018. Back then, Maru bested TY to claim his third title in a row, but this time, TY gave Maru his first taste of defeat in a Code S finals. Even 2018 Maru had only been able to beat TY by the slimmest of margins, and with TY now playing the best StarCraft of his career (also having won Code S Season 1 that year), he was able to show his superiority in TvT and win 4-2.

2020 was also the year that brought us the 'pandemic era' of online-oriented StarCraft, and Maru achieved mixed results in the spate of mixed-region online events that sprung up. While he went on a TvT rampage to win one of the smaller competitions in King of Battles #1, his performance in the larger DHM Season Finals left much to be desired as he went out in the RO8 of and RO16 of the two tournaments held that year.

Maru began to bounce back in 2021, starting the year with a top four finish in the online IEM World Championship. He then went on to earn his second shot at the G5L in Code S Season 1, facing the infamously clutch Rogue in the finals. Despite Rogue's reputation, Maru seemed to have a good chance of winning due to his former teammate's worse form, and the fact that he had won their BO5 meeting in the IEM World Championship. However, BO7 Rogue proved to be an entirely different animal from BO5 Rogue, and he defeated Maru 4-1 to deny him the G5L once more.

Maru receives experimental treatment for his wrist gets a cast taken of his hand after winning the inaugural SSL.

Despite this G5L disappointment, 2021 was still a very strong overall year for Maru. Across the 12 Liquipedia-premier events he participated in that year, Maru won twice at the DHM Winter Finals and King of Battles #2, earned three runner-up finishes in Code S Season 1, DHM Summer Finals, Super Tournament #3, and finished in the semifinals of four other tournaments. Part of this rebound was due to him remastering the hyper-defensive style he utilized so well in 2018, which was notably on display when he beat Serral in the finals of King of Battles 2. Another key development during this time was that Maru's already top-tier TvT jumped another level to being almost completely unbeatable, which was helped by his top TvT rival TY beginning his military service.

Maru kept up this high level of play as StarCraft returned to largely offline competition in 2022, beginning by winning the final pandemic era offline tournament of DHM Last Chance. While he did falter immediately after, finishing in the top eight of Code S Season 1 and IEM Katowice, he rallied in the remaining tournaments of the year. In the summer, he recorded a tightly packed trio of runner-up finishes, falling just short of the championship at DHM Summer/Valencia, TeamLiquid Starleague 9, and Code S Season 2. The latter tournament marked Maru's third failure attempt to capture the G5L, which was somewhat masked by the remarkable nature of its champion herO (who broke previous assumptions about the ceiling for players returning from military service). Still, the once inevitable G5L started to feel cursed—how else could you explain herO's historic run coming at exactly that moment?

Fortunately for Maru, he wouldn't have to suffer quite as long as others who had been in his position. In Code S Season 3, Maru finally broke his streak of three runner-up finishes in Code S finals. This time, his path to the championship was very straight-forward, as if he had dispensed with all the drama in his three failed attempts. Maru finished both his RO20 and RO10 groups in first place, giving him a direct berth in the RO4 of the revised Code S format. No one could challenge Maru in the playoffs, and he defeated herO 3-1 in the semifinals before sweeping RagnaroK in the grand finals. What everyone had known since 2019 had finally been stamped with the G5L seal of approval: Maru was absolutely, undeniably the greatest GSL player of all time.

Although Maru fell victim to herO's heroics once more in the semifinals of December's DHM Atlanta, he was hardly resting on his laurels. Indeed, at the next major event of IEM Katowice 2023, he looked very much like a player who just achieved the impossible in Korea, recording a 16-3 map record on his way to the grand finals. However, in an incident that harkened back to his loss to military returnee herO in the Code S finals—only amplified a hundred times in the magnitude of its unlikeliness—Maru once again played the role of the monster to be slain at the end of a heroic saga. This time, the protagonist was Oliveira, who was merely the 21st ranked player in the world headed into the tournament. The underdog Terran from China took down the greatest Terran from Korea, denying Maru from adding the IEM World Championship to his already packed trophy case.

While Maru openly talked about how heavily that IEM loss rankled him, he got his head back in the right mental space in time for the start of the 2023 GSL Season. Code S Season 1 ended up being one of the most Terran-dominated events since the Wings of Liberty days, which made it a prime opportunity for the #1 TvT player in Maru. ByuN, GuMiho, Bunny, and Cure were all incapable of pulling an Oliveira, and Maru went on to win his second Code S championship in a row and sixth overall. As in 2018, success begat even more success for Maru, and he obtained his seventh overall title in the following Code S Season 2. This time, he took down Cure and Dark in the playoffs, completing his second three-peat of his career.

They say the human mind has trouble processing very large numbers, and something to that effect became applicable once Maru crossed the five championship line in Code S. Five was the number of Mvp, but once Maru reached titles number six or seven, it became hard to fully appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment. Another four-in-a-row streak seemed like it might be in the cards, but just as in 2019, Maru's hot-streak ended abruptly in the group stage. In Season 3, Maru showed uncharacteristically poor play (and maladjustment to a new map pool), and went out in the first group stage to Scarlett and Solar.

Unfortunately for Maru, international tournaments didn't pan out as well following his IEM Katowice finals defeat. At the newly created super-major of Gamers8, his vaunted TvT failed him once more in the playoffs as he was eliminated by Clem in the RO8. Also, he was unusually poor at the two live EPT/DHM events held that year, dropping out of the RO12 of DreamHack Jonkoping while falling in the RO24 of DreamHack Atlanta (although, like many of the other players at that event, he had the excuse of having caught the illness that widely circulated).

Maru's 2024 began with a bittersweet rebound at IEM Katowice. He reached the grand finals for the second straight tournament in a row, something that had only been achieved by Reynor and Zest in the past. However, he followed down the silver-paved path of Zest, ending up finishing runner-up two tournaments in a row. Running into Serral in the midst of his second career peak, Maru had to surrender a 0-4 sweep in the grand finals.

As with #2 player Serral, the story for Maru is still being written. He remains a top championship contender in any tournament he enters, and there is enough time left in StarCraft II to either defend or lose his grasp on the #1 spot.

The Tools: Unstoppable Force AND Immovable Object

Originally coming to prominence as a cheesy one trick pony, Maru improved substantially over the years to become the most complete Terran of all time.

The first parts of his game to fill out were his micro and multitasking, and at the time of his OSL win in 2013, he possessed what was arguably the best micro in the game. His infantry splits were unrivaled, as was his ability to attack in multiple places at once (in an iteration of StarCraft II where this was far more difficult to do). He would invariably pick apart all but the very best defensive players in chaotic games.

The flashy nature of Maru's play made it so his strong macro play became overlooked, but that was probably because of his proximity to INnoVation during the Machine's peak years. It was easy to depict INnoVation, who seemed to cheat out infinite numbers of units to overwhelm his opponents, as the macro monster who stood in contrast to the micro-oriented Maru. In truth, Maru needed a strong macro base to make his aggressive style work—especially his famed HotS TvP where he would trade away cheap infantry against the opponent's high-tech units. I would argue that by 2015-16, his macro was already on a level that was close to INnoVation.

The final piece to the Maru puzzle was becoming the best late-game player in the world during Legacy of the Void. In stark contrast to his hyperactive HotS style, Maru learned how to set up in an impenetrable defensive stance and grind out victories in grueling battles of attrition—often starting from an extreme deficit. This style was initially brought on due to favorable maps and the patch situation in 2018, but Maru later adapted the style to changing metas and made it his signature way of playing.

And so, during Maru's runs of GSL-conquering dominance from 2018 and onward, we saw him reach that hallowed tier of near-perfection. His early-game was just as unpredictable and deadly as his earlier years—perhaps even at its peak level during the Terran proxy-meta—punishing the slightest mistake with an immediate defeat. His micro was precise as ever and he was still capable of swinging fights he had no business winning. His macro was the strongest it had ever been and his ability to control complex armies while fighting on multiple fronts ranked among the best players to ever play the game. And, if all else failed, he had an unparalleled ability to manufacture wins out of nowhere through late-game defense.

The Numbers: A Decade of Greatness

Tournaments that did not begin in the RO32 have their starting round noted in parentheses.
a: SSL 2017 was excluded due its 10-player format.
b: Tournament where the round-of-16 was the starting round.

a: SSL 2017 was excluded due its 10 player format.
b: All finishes in the lowest round of a tournament were counted in this column, INCLUDING RO16 finishes in 16 player events (see note C below).
c: Typically the RO16, but also includes RO10 finishes in the GSL 2022 (20 player) format, and RO32 finishes in GSL 2010 and the GSL 2011 Super Tournament (64 player) formats. 16 player tournaments were considered to not have a second round.
d: Includes RO6 finishes for Code S 2022. RO8 for all other tournaments.

As can be seen in the above chart, no one has enjoyed as much Korean Individual League success over such a long period of time as Maru. He won a Korean Individual League nine times since 2013, with his first and last wins being a decade apart. Outside of his championships, he's achieved three runner-ups and numerous RO8+ finishes. Also, he is the only player to achieve a 'triple crown' of Code S, OSL, and SSL wins.

Since Maru’s career spans from the very start of competitive StarCraft II, it's worth taking a closer look at how he performed against the best players from each era.

Game record listed first, match record in parentheses.

Maru first rose to become a championship caliber player in Heart of the Swarm, and during that time, he tied Classic and INnoVation for the most Korean Individual League championships with two. While he did not attain clear best-in-world status during this time, he remained in the top echelon of competition and was one of the more consistent players in earning podium finishes.

This consistency can be seen in his win-loss record, as Maru has the most match wins of anyone in this period, the second most map wins, and win rates in the close vicinity of category leaders Rain and INnoVation.

Game record listed first, match record in parentheses.
a: SSL 2017 was excluded due its highly unusual 10-player format with a full-round robin followed by a gauntlet-style playoffs.
b: This was the only SSL to be played in a full, double-elimination tournament format.

Early Legacy of the Void saw Dark, Stats, TY, and Rogue all came into their primes, but so did Maru! His strong play in HotS was just a precursor to his explosion in LotV, where he swept all three Code S tournaments 2018 to become the undisputed best player in Korea for the first extended period of time.

Maru's dominance during his Code S championship runs allowed him to put up ridiculous win rate numbers, although as his lower number of games played shows, that's partially because he missed several tournaments during his 2016 slump. Still, even if you watered down Maru's record with the qualifier/Code A numbers from the tournament he missed, his win rate would remain among the best in the period.

Game record listed first, match record in parentheses.

Rogue and Dark continued to be respectable rivals for Maru in the modern LotV era, with Rogue winning four Code S titles while Dark won two championships and collected numerous other high finishes. However, Maru remained on top of the mountain, matching Rogue's four Code S titles while adding three runner-up finishes on top of that. As a testament to Rogue and Dark's level of play in this period, their win rates either surpass or are close to Maru.

*****

Over the past decade, Maru has performed as well or better than elite players from ten years of StarCraft II history. Rain was on Maru’s level in 2013 and 2015, but he retired 43 months into his SC2 career. Mvp had a stranglehold over the Korean scene when in his prime, but that only lasted two years. soO, INnoVation, Zest, and sOs also experienced success over lengthy periods of time, but all four faded heavily in the later stages of their careers. Stats suffered a similar fate as his results slipped in 2018 and 2019. TY was a top three Terran in Korea from 2016 to his retirement in 2021, but he only managed to win Code S twice. Dark is another player who could have won more given his talent, but he failed to advance beyond the Round of 16 in nearly half of the seasons of Code S he played in Legacy of the Void. Rogue obviously rivals Maru when it comes to their trophy collections, but he only won those after going the first five years of his career without a major title.

If we take a step back and consider the totality of players' careers once more, we can see how far ahead Maru comes out compared to anyone who has played in Code S for an extended period of time. There are only eleven players in history who won over 150 games in Code S while also winning 51% or more of those games. Most of the players are clustered in a single zone with less than 200 total wins and sub-60% win rates, including illustrious names such as herO, Rogue, Zest, Trap, PartinG, soO, Classic, GuMiho, and herO.

While TY, INnoVation, and Dark, break apart from the pack somewhat, none of them come close to reaching Maru who had 350 wins and a 61.95% win rate as of the last completed Code S tournament (2023 Season 3). His total win count exceeds second place Dark by over 134, and seeing how the present season is going (2024 Season 1), that gap is only going to grow wider. On top of that, Maru clears everyone's win rate by at least two percentage points, with the lone exception of TY at 61.41% (TY's amazing consistency in the GSL was covered in his own article).

Even though the trophy case already shows that no one can compare to Maru when it comes to Korean competition, numbers like these help demonstrate that the gap exists in every dimension. In the past, the GSL has created awards such as the Nestea award for ten consecutive Code S qualifications and the PartinG award for ten consecutive RO16+ finishes in Code S. What would a hypothetical Maru award be for? 350 wins with a 60%+ win rate? Seven Code S titles? Ten Code S finals? Whatever mark is set, it's guaranteed to be one and done.

a: The 2011/12 season was excluded as it was played in a hybrid Brood War + SC2 format.
b: Playoff statistics included.
c: Excluding nine games where Classic played as Terran (2-7 record).

While Maru's domination of Korean Individual Leagues is the highlight of his career, we can't overlook how he was also one of the best Proleague players of all time. In previous articles in this series, I've emphasized how Proleague had at least equal weight to individual leagues during the KeSPA heyday, if not being even more important.

Maru joined the fray late after signing with Jin Air in 2014, and immediately made an impact as an ace-level player and won rookie of the year. Although Proleague did not give out a full-season MVP award (the closest was finals MVP and the award for most regular season wins), if such an award had existed, Maru should arguably have won in 2014 and 2016 while having a good case to win in 2015 as well. In particular, his 2016 campaign stands out as the greatest single-season performance in SC2 Proleague history, as he went 22-4 in games and posted an 85% win-rate. While a Proleague GOAT list would need an entirely separate article in itself, there's a reasonable case to take Maru #1 if one values peak performance over total production.

The Placement

It all came down to time and consistency.

Starting with #10 player Rain at the very start of this series, there's been a common factor for all the players on this list: There's a tension between the value of results accumulated over a long period versus concentrated bursts of brilliance. Some of the greats had lengthy stints in StarCraft II, with multiple, wild swings in form. Others only competed for three or four years, but remained at the highest level for nearly the entire time. How does one square such vastly different career types?

And, then there is Maru. He was the only player who posed no such dilemma whatsoever, having consistently been one of the best players in the world for over a decade. He matched up with HotS greats like Rain, soO, INnoVation, sOs, and Zest when they were at the peak of their powers, and went on to battle and surpass LotV giants such as Stats, TY, and Dark. He remains a top championship contender to this day, even after the final(?) generation of legends including Rogue, Serral, and Reynor came into their primes.

Despite the notorious grind of progaming that chews through talent, despite becoming stricken with wrist issues as his career went on, and despite experiencing meta-cycles that were extraordinarily poor for Terran, Maru not only persevered but excelled for over a decade.

All in all, there is not a single player who can rival Maru when it comes to his otherworldly longevity. Serral is the player who comes closest, as he's currently in the midst of an incredible six year run at a higher average level than Maru. Depending on how the two players perform in the coming years (hopefully), it's entirely realistic that Serral could pass Maru. But, as of now, it's too soon to pass him the GOAT baton.

Yes, there is an obvious flaw in Maru's career resume: the lack of a WCS or IEM world championship. However, should we say the 'flaw' in everyone else's resume is that they haven't won major tournaments as early as 2013 and as recently as 2023? That they weren't one of the best Proleague players in 2014 and one of the best World Team League players right now?

When Maru made his debut in the first open season of Code S at the age of 13, we all hoped for future greatness. None of us would have expected for his story and the history of professional StarCraft II to become one and the same. And, that is why Maru deserves to be called the GOAT. Expansions are released, patches are applied, and players come and go. But even as the days, months, and years have flown by, Maru has remained immutable. He is the lone constant, the Greatest of All Time.

The Games

Maru vs MyuNgSiK: 2015 Proleague - Round 3 (May 19, 2015)

StarCraft II games are often decided by materiel—who has more bases, who has more supply, who loses the fewest units. All of these are clear indicators for who is winning or who will win a game. But, just as he did in 2014, where Maru defied logic on his way to earning the moniker of “The Fourth Race.” Throwing unit after unit at MyuNgSiK in what seemed a suicidal effort, Maru made it work. After over 25 minutes of game time during which Maru sniped every Colossus he could get his hands on, MyuNgSiK, who seemed like he should have been able to win a million times over if he had just counterattacked, had no choice but to admit defeat.

Maru vs herO: 2015 Code S Season 1 - Round of 16 (February 27, 2015)

Chosen as the third best game of 2015 by TL.net, this game is the perfect example of the breakneck pace at which Maru loved to play StarCraft II during Heart of the Swarm. His opponent, herO, another player known for his excellent micro and ability to make the most out of a little, proved to be an excellent dance partner. herO did a fantastic job surviving attacks that would have brought any other player to their knees, sending the game hurtling toward one of the most exciting and unforgettable endings in StarCraft II history.

Maru vs Solar: IEM Katowice 2018 - Round of 4, Game 4 (March 3, 2018)

Known for the majority of his career as a micro specialist who excelled in the mid-game, Maru suddenly became the god of late-game turtling in 2018. He had the newly patched Raven to thank, which may have been the single most broken unit in the history of the game (WoL BL-Infestor only worked as a combo). IEM Katowice 2018 was one of the first big showcases for this style of play, and poor Solar served as the ballistics dummy that was disintegrated by barrage of anti-

armor missiles.

Maru vs Cure: 2023 Code S Season 1 - Grand Finals, Game 6 (May 18, 2018)

The 2020's saw Maru become an utterly unstoppable force in TvT, belonging in an entire separate tier from his fellow Terrans. While there are many great games to pick from in his TvT catalog, this finals showdown against Cure is a particularly good demonstration of Maru's situational awareness, quick decision-making, and overall understanding of late-game win conditions in the match-up.

Credits and acknowledgements

Written by: Mizenhauer
Editors: CosmicSpiral, Wax
Statistics and records: Aligulac.com, Liquipedia, Code S Stats
Images and Photos: Blizzard (photography by Helena Kristiansson), Jin Air Green Wings, Kevin Chang (aka silverfire), AfreecaTV.