My judging criterions
I focussed mostly on the player’s performance in the major ESOC seasonal tournaments (including NWC/LAN), but I also considered all other 1v1 supremacy (sorry Conqueror) minor tournaments. I checked all the elimination brackets, so group stage games did not count. For the 2020 winter tournament, I only considered the Pro Division. With major tournaments, I refer to:
Spring 2015
Summer 2015
Winter 2015
Autumn 2016
Spring 2017
Autumn 2017
Autumn 2018
NWC/LAN 2019
Winter 2020
Spring 2015
Summer 2015
Winter 2015
Autumn 2016
Spring 2017
Autumn 2017
Autumn 2018
NWC/LAN 2019
Winter 2020
#10
#10: Kynesie
Tournies: 6
Top16: 5 (6)
Top8: 4 (5)
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 0
We start the list with one of the most controversial players in the community. Criticized for his defensive playstyle and lag by some and adored for his uniqueness by others. Most of us were very disappointed when he smurfed for Tit in the NWC and costed himself a spot at the UK LAN. Still the Lord of Water and Walls earned himself a spot in the top 10 by making it into the late stages of a lot of ESOC majors, most notably losing the Autumn 2018 finals by the smallest of margins (4-5).
Tournies: 6
Top16: 5 (6)
Top8: 4 (5)
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 0
We start the list with one of the most controversial players in the community. Criticized for his defensive playstyle and lag by some and adored for his uniqueness by others. Most of us were very disappointed when he smurfed for Tit in the NWC and costed himself a spot at the UK LAN. Still the Lord of Water and Walls earned himself a spot in the top 10 by making it into the late stages of a lot of ESOC majors, most notably losing the Autumn 2018 finals by the smallest of margins (4-5).
#9
#9: Samwise12
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 1
Top4: 1
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Summer 2015)
The man who once broke the PR system returned to the game after the first ESOC tournament and immediately made his mark by winning the ESOC Summer Championship 2015. He followed that up with two respectable, yet unspectacular Ro16 runs, yielding him position 9 on this list.
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 1
Top4: 1
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Summer 2015)
The man who once broke the PR system returned to the game after the first ESOC tournament and immediately made his mark by winning the ESOC Summer Championship 2015. He followed that up with two respectable, yet unspectacular Ro16 runs, yielding him position 9 on this list.
#8
#8: Hazza54321
Tournies: 7
Top16: 5
Top8: 4
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Winter 2020)
He is the personification of the American Dream in our community. While still being a lousy captain during the first ESOC seasonal, he steadily climbed the ladder over the years. Becoming a top team player, holding the number 2 spot on ESOC ELO lately and crowning 4 straight Top8 appearances by winning the 2020 Winter Championship.
Tournies: 7
Top16: 5
Top8: 4
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Winter 2020)
He is the personification of the American Dream in our community. While still being a lousy captain during the first ESOC seasonal, he steadily climbed the ladder over the years. Becoming a top team player, holding the number 2 spot on ESOC ELO lately and crowning 4 straight Top8 appearances by winning the 2020 Winter Championship.
#7
#7: Snowww
Tournies: 7
Top16: 6
Top8: 5
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Autumn 2018)
Pretty much the opposite of rising star Hazza, Snowww was already considered top 5 when ESOC started. He is possibly the least active player that still shows up for these events, showing up on week 1 and disappearing after he is eliminated. Considering his lack of practice sessions and sizable tournament earnings, he probably has the highest hourly ESOC salary. Apart from the Autumn 2018 Championship, he also won the Time to Micro Tournament in 2019.
Tournies: 7
Top16: 6
Top8: 5
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (Autumn 2018)
Pretty much the opposite of rising star Hazza, Snowww was already considered top 5 when ESOC started. He is possibly the least active player that still shows up for these events, showing up on week 1 and disappearing after he is eliminated. Considering his lack of practice sessions and sizable tournament earnings, he probably has the highest hourly ESOC salary. Apart from the Autumn 2018 Championship, he also won the Time to Micro Tournament in 2019.
#6
#6: diarouga(with a lowercase d)
Tournies: 4
Top16: 4
Top8: 3
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (NWC 2019)
Another player with a rather controversial history with the community and the ESOC staff, which resulted in him only participating in 4 major tournies. You might have expected the winner of the biggest tournament in ESOC history further up but apart from the 2019 New World Championship, diarouga only has one more semi-finals appearance and three minor finals (winning one) to offer. With NWC being bigger than all other tournaments and a phenomenal win-rate of roughly 90% on the ESOC ladder, he still ranks above 3 other ESOC major winners.
Tournies: 4
Top16: 4
Top8: 3
Top4: 2
Finals: 1
Won: 1 (NWC 2019)
Another player with a rather controversial history with the community and the ESOC staff, which resulted in him only participating in 4 major tournies. You might have expected the winner of the biggest tournament in ESOC history further up but apart from the 2019 New World Championship, diarouga only has one more semi-finals appearance and three minor finals (winning one) to offer. With NWC being bigger than all other tournaments and a phenomenal win-rate of roughly 90% on the ESOC ladder, he still ranks above 3 other ESOC major winners.
#5
#5: Kaiserklein
Tournies: 8
Top16: 6
Top8: 5
Top4: 4
Finals: 0
Won: 0
Like Hazza, we have seen Kaiserklein evolve a lot. He entered the community as this Nilla guy who wanted an EP version for Nilla and only played Germany. He then went on to beat every good player around with Outlaws and Mercs until finally maturing into the multi-civ threat we know today. Kaiserklein is an odd case in this list and was the hardest player for me to rank. If I was only counting major tournaments like an olympic medal table, he would not even make the top 10. If I gave minor tournaments as much weight as major ones, he would be 1st. So, I decided to put him at the bottom of the top 5.
He has the second most major semi-final appearances with 4, getting those during the last 5 tournaments. On top of that he has been in 10! minor finals, winning 7 of them (Both Grand-Tour playoffs!) and has been sitting on top of the ESOC ladder for an eternity now. He was the first to crack 2000, 2100 and 2200 ELO respectively and still maintains an 80% win-rate after 2500 games. At the same time, he has somehow never entered an ESOC major final but as soon as he does finally win a big one, he will probably shoot up to the top 3.
Tournies: 8
Top16: 6
Top8: 5
Top4: 4
Finals: 0
Won: 0
Like Hazza, we have seen Kaiserklein evolve a lot. He entered the community as this Nilla guy who wanted an EP version for Nilla and only played Germany. He then went on to beat every good player around with Outlaws and Mercs until finally maturing into the multi-civ threat we know today. Kaiserklein is an odd case in this list and was the hardest player for me to rank. If I was only counting major tournaments like an olympic medal table, he would not even make the top 10. If I gave minor tournaments as much weight as major ones, he would be 1st. So, I decided to put him at the bottom of the top 5.
He has the second most major semi-final appearances with 4, getting those during the last 5 tournaments. On top of that he has been in 10! minor finals, winning 7 of them (Both Grand-Tour playoffs!) and has been sitting on top of the ESOC ladder for an eternity now. He was the first to crack 2000, 2100 and 2200 ELO respectively and still maintains an 80% win-rate after 2500 games. At the same time, he has somehow never entered an ESOC major final but as soon as he does finally win a big one, he will probably shoot up to the top 3.
#4
#4: Mitoe
Tournies: 8
Top16: 8
Top8: 7
Top4: 3
Finals: 2
Won: 1 (Autumn 2017)
Some call him "Our friendly neighbourhood lumberjack", some call him "The oldest man on Earth", on that note: Happy Birthday Mitoe! I would call him the ESOC Iron Man. He competed in all but the first ESOC major and made it to the Ro16 every time, and to the Ro8 7 times. Both are a record. While Mitoe is famous for being inconsistent on a game-to-game basis, he is Mister Consistency in the grand scheme of things. He is also the first entry on this list to make it to 2 major finals, winning the Autumn 2017 Championship and losing the Winter 2020 finals to Hazza. Besides his major tournament accomplishments, he has been in 5 minor finals, winning the first Mono-Civ Cup in 2018 and the Underused Cup in 2019.
Tournies: 8
Top16: 8
Top8: 7
Top4: 3
Finals: 2
Won: 1 (Autumn 2017)
Some call him "Our friendly neighbourhood lumberjack", some call him "The oldest man on Earth", on that note: Happy Birthday Mitoe! I would call him the ESOC Iron Man. He competed in all but the first ESOC major and made it to the Ro16 every time, and to the Ro8 7 times. Both are a record. While Mitoe is famous for being inconsistent on a game-to-game basis, he is Mister Consistency in the grand scheme of things. He is also the first entry on this list to make it to 2 major finals, winning the Autumn 2017 Championship and losing the Winter 2020 finals to Hazza. Besides his major tournament accomplishments, he has been in 5 minor finals, winning the first Mono-Civ Cup in 2018 and the Underused Cup in 2019.
#3
#3: H2O
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 3
Top4: 3
Finals: 3
Won: 1 (Winter 2015)
H2O is one of 2 names which are at the start of every discussion about the greatest AoE III player of all time. With IamGrunt long retired, he was the unrivalled superstar at the beginning of ESOC. And he lived up to the hype, entering 3 major tournaments and making it to the finals every single time! To the surprise of many, he actually lost 2 of those finals and “only” won the Winter 2015 championship in a flawless 5-0 sweep.
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 3
Top4: 3
Finals: 3
Won: 1 (Winter 2015)
H2O is one of 2 names which are at the start of every discussion about the greatest AoE III player of all time. With IamGrunt long retired, he was the unrivalled superstar at the beginning of ESOC. And he lived up to the hype, entering 3 major tournaments and making it to the finals every single time! To the surprise of many, he actually lost 2 of those finals and “only” won the Winter 2015 championship in a flawless 5-0 sweep.
#2
#2: Blackstar_OP
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 3
Top4: 2
Finals: 2
Won: 2 (Spring 2015 and Spring 2017)
The only 2-time ESOC major winner in history accomplished this feat in only 3 tournaments, which means he has only lost a single tournament series in ESOC history. That being his somewhat controversial Ro8 bout versus MusketJR aka Badspeed. Blackstar holds a short but almost perfect ESOC tournament career. He won the very first ESOC event (Spring Championship 2015) by defeating favourite H2O in a nail-biting 5-4 series which is still considered to be the best tournament series in ESOC history. He left ESOC following his defeat in the 2015 Summer Championship and returned in 2017 to claim that year’s Spring Championship.
Tournies: 3
Top16: 3
Top8: 3
Top4: 2
Finals: 2
Won: 2 (Spring 2015 and Spring 2017)
The only 2-time ESOC major winner in history accomplished this feat in only 3 tournaments, which means he has only lost a single tournament series in ESOC history. That being his somewhat controversial Ro8 bout versus MusketJR aka Badspeed. Blackstar holds a short but almost perfect ESOC tournament career. He won the very first ESOC event (Spring Championship 2015) by defeating favourite H2O in a nail-biting 5-4 series which is still considered to be the best tournament series in ESOC history. He left ESOC following his defeat in the 2015 Summer Championship and returned in 2017 to claim that year’s Spring Championship.
#1
#1: Aizamk
Ok, I am just kidding
But I wanted to give my favourite player a shoutout for continuously vowing audiences with his meta- and logic-defying strategies. He is the ultimate wildcard, able to defeat every Top player repeatedly while casually losing to Lt. Colonels. His legacy is so much greater than the 6 Top16 and 2 Top8 placings as well as the victory in the first War Chief Classic in 2017. One day we want to see him on the throne.
But now onto the real number 1.
A lot of whitespace to save the joke...Why do we not have nested spoilers?
#1: LordRaphael
This decision might surprise a lot of people and even as I am writing it down, I am still not entirely sure about it, but LordRaphael is my number one. Even before I went back to look at the tournament results, I already knew which players would make the Top 3. But it was incredibly difficult for me to decide on an order and I could not fault anyone for putting H2O or Blackstar at number 1. In the end, it all comes down to what you value most. Is it H2O for seamlessly going to the finals every single time and arguably losing the first finals to counter-civing and the last finals to tilting? Is it Blackstar_OP for being the only 2-time winner and having finals victories over both H2O and LordRaphael? Or is it longevity and the ability to motivate yourself year after year to perform at an outstanding level and overcoming a crushing 5-0 defeat to take your first title? I ultimately chose the last and here are some numbers why.
Tournies: 7 (8, broken PC in Ro64)
Top16: 7
Top8: 6
Top4: 5
Finals: 4
Won: 1 (Autumn 2016)
LordRaphael holds the record for most semi-final appearances with 5 and the record for most final appearances with 4 (3 of them in a row!). On top of that, he made it to 5 minor finals, winning 4, which is second only to Kaiserklein. Couple that with his jaw-dropping 85% win-rate on the ESOC ladder and you get the picture of someone who got to the highest level and just stayed there for 5 years. He does lack the aura of invincibility that both H2O and Blackstar possess, dropping random games left and right on his bumpy way to the finals but nobody gets there on such a regular basis by accident. I decided to give the number one spot to LordRaphael for his ability to play at the highest of levels over the entire life-time of ESOC, despite already having won everything there is to win. Congratulations to the Greatest in ESOC history!
Ok, I am just kidding
But I wanted to give my favourite player a shoutout for continuously vowing audiences with his meta- and logic-defying strategies. He is the ultimate wildcard, able to defeat every Top player repeatedly while casually losing to Lt. Colonels. His legacy is so much greater than the 6 Top16 and 2 Top8 placings as well as the victory in the first War Chief Classic in 2017. One day we want to see him on the throne. But now onto the real number 1.
A lot of whitespace to save the joke...Why do we not have nested spoilers?
#1: LordRaphael
This decision might surprise a lot of people and even as I am writing it down, I am still not entirely sure about it, but LordRaphael is my number one. Even before I went back to look at the tournament results, I already knew which players would make the Top 3. But it was incredibly difficult for me to decide on an order and I could not fault anyone for putting H2O or Blackstar at number 1. In the end, it all comes down to what you value most. Is it H2O for seamlessly going to the finals every single time and arguably losing the first finals to counter-civing and the last finals to tilting? Is it Blackstar_OP for being the only 2-time winner and having finals victories over both H2O and LordRaphael? Or is it longevity and the ability to motivate yourself year after year to perform at an outstanding level and overcoming a crushing 5-0 defeat to take your first title? I ultimately chose the last and here are some numbers why.
Tournies: 7 (8, broken PC in Ro64)
Top16: 7
Top8: 6
Top4: 5
Finals: 4
Won: 1 (Autumn 2016)
LordRaphael holds the record for most semi-final appearances with 5 and the record for most final appearances with 4 (3 of them in a row!). On top of that, he made it to 5 minor finals, winning 4, which is second only to Kaiserklein. Couple that with his jaw-dropping 85% win-rate on the ESOC ladder and you get the picture of someone who got to the highest level and just stayed there for 5 years. He does lack the aura of invincibility that both H2O and Blackstar possess, dropping random games left and right on his bumpy way to the finals but nobody gets there on such a regular basis by accident. I decided to give the number one spot to LordRaphael for his ability to play at the highest of levels over the entire life-time of ESOC, despite already having won everything there is to win. Congratulations to the Greatest in ESOC history!
Bonus Content
Some obscure stats, I also discovered:
Soldier is the only player to make the Top32 in every single (9) ESOC major
PrinceOfKabul has been eliminated in the Ro16 6 times in 8 appearances (Soldier and Garja 5 times)
Blackstar (Spring, 17) and H2O (Spring, 15) only lost a single game on their way to the finals
diarouga lost 13 games on his way to win the NWC LAN
Snowww and Kynesie entered the Autumn 2018 finals with identical records of 14-4
Knuschelbär has made 7 minor semi-finals and lost 5 of them
Soldier is the only player to make the Top32 in every single (9) ESOC major
PrinceOfKabul has been eliminated in the Ro16 6 times in 8 appearances (Soldier and Garja 5 times)
Blackstar (Spring, 17) and H2O (Spring, 15) only lost a single game on their way to the finals
diarouga lost 13 games on his way to win the NWC LAN
Snowww and Kynesie entered the Autumn 2018 finals with identical records of 14-4
Knuschelbär has made 7 minor semi-finals and lost 5 of them
