The Korean ranking system of KeSPA updates itself every month so it’s time to look at the standings for August. So what happened this month? Eager to see what happened to the likes of Flash, JaeDonG, BeSt, July, fOrGG or Luxury? Well, this month was certainly kind to fOrGG and July, while players like Bisu, Stork or sAviOr didn’t actually manage to do so well. But enough of this, let’s take a look at the standings.

August KeSPA Ranking
Rank	Name	Team	Points	Var
1.	Flash	KTF MagicNs	2242.5	n/a
2.	Jaedong	Lecaf OZ	2238	n/a
3.	Luxury	OGN Sparkyz	1579	n/a
4.	BeSt	SKTelecom T1	1453.9	+6
5.	July	STX SouL	1438.5	+9
6.	Mind	WeMade FOX	1433.6	n/a
7.	fOrGG	Lecaf OZ	1408.1	+14
8.	Stork	Samsung KHAN	1399.5	-4
9.	Kal	STX SouL	1361.6	-1
10.	Much	CJ Entus	1355.3	-1

Flash is still Kid Wonder

Flash is KTF’s prodigy, no doubt about it anymore; he’s been winning too much, to often, basically carrying his team in everything worth mentioning such as the EVER OSL, Arena MSL or the ShinHan ProLeague. Though right now he’s not exactly as dominant, given the fact that he lost the MSL trophy to fOrGG, he’s still a beast. Flash hardly disappoints, and when he does, that’s exactly what it is – a disappointment – since people got used to him winning.

JaeDonG is annoyingly close to Flash

Since Flash might feel lonely at the top, JaeDonG decided to join him; he is breathing down Flash’s neck, that’s for sure, since only 4 points separates the Legend Killer from the coveted #1 spot. Recent matches made people question his ability to dominate the ZvT matchup, which is something downright terrifying in JaeDonG’s case. However, he did more than good, with only one Terran posing a significant threat to him – that’s right, fOrGG. Even so, silver MSL medal doesn’t sound too bad, even if we’re talking about this Zerg symbol.

BeSt keeps going up

BeSt is a player that completely took the scene by storm, coming from nowhere and rocketing his way up the rankings thanks to a very solid play style. This young SK T1 Protoss is definitely thirsty for a trophy and the closest he got so far was going silver in the most recent OSL. If only there’ wasn’t a particular Zerg to bring him down so easy…

Which brings us to rank 5: JulyZerg is the proud owner of the Golden Mouse thanks to his golden medal in the EVER OSL. An old school Zerg master taking down a new age Protoss so easy, you say? That would be considered madness unless, you know, it actually happen. Which it did. July simply crushed BeSt with his hyper-aggressive style, 3 games in a row. Sure, he did great in other games, but do we really have to remember those as long as he is the first ever Zerg player to get a Golden Mouse (and the second player to ever get one, since NaDa did this first)? I thought so too.

July, The God of War, is back in action

Ranked 7th is probably the hottest Terran at the moment, right after Flash: he’s from Lecaf OZ and you know him as fOrGG. This guy simply blew our minds when he dismantled both the #1 and #2 spots in the Arena MSL – he simply dominated Flash and JaeDonG, which is something downright amazing. He improved so much in so little time, making us wonder if he’s just a one-shot wonder (like the case of GGplay maybe?) or if he’s here to stay. Let’s not be too hard on him yet, let him enjoy his MSL trophy for a while longer.

August KeSPA Ranking
Rank	Name	Team	Points	Var
11.	Bisu	SK Telecom T1	1267.5	-6
12.	Sea	MBCGame HERO	1221.8	-5
13.	JangBi	Samsung KHAN	1169.6	-2
14.	Hwasin	STX SouL	1165.5	-2
15.	free	Hanbit Stars	1089.4	n/a
16.	NaDa	WeMade FOX	1047.8	-3
17.	Light	MBCGame HERO	908.3	-1
18.	BackHo	Lecaf OZ	906.4	+2
19.	YellOw[ArnC]	OGN Sparkyz	900.8	+3
20.	Rock	WeMade FOX	852.8	-1

The 11-20 part of the ranking basically spells “sadness”; just look at it and you’ll notice that only BackHo and YellOw[ArnC] did better than last month according to KeSPA, while free just managed to hold his position in the ranking.

Bisu and Sea left the top 10 due to results that didn’t really impress anymore (which probably makes me wonder how long until we see Stork and Much joining them?), JangBi seems to be burned out like a cheap firecracker and NaDa still not showing convincing results.

As for BackHo, well, let’s just say he didn’t do that bad, since reaching the OSL semi-finals is still something worth bragging about. Yellow[ArnC], the single Zerg in this part of the ranking,  didn’t do that well in the OSL, as he got booted from his Zerg group; his MSL road was slightly better, reaching Round of 32. He seems pretty tired at the moment, but maybe these results will motivate him to elevate his play because he certainly has the potential.

August KeSPA Ranking
Rank	Name	Team	Points	Var
21.	Anytime	Lecaf OZ	842.3	-4
22.	sAviOr	CJ Entus	839.3	-4
23.	Kwanro	CJ Entus	797.4	n/a
24.	Rumble	SKTelecom T1	780.8	+1
25.	Firebathero	Samsung KHAN	761.3	-1
26.	Lomo	Lecaf OZ	704.1	+2
27.	Canata	SKTelecom T1	657.9	+3
28.	UpMagiC	eSTRO	627.4	-2
29.	Midas	SKTelecom T1	609.8	+2
30.	XellOs	CJ Entus	571.9	-1

Can sAviOr find the strength to get back on track?

The most notable appearance in the last part of the KeSPA ranking is definitely sAviOr. The Maestro went through some tough times - tougher than usual, I mean – getting demoted to the B team due to his poor record and, frankly, he deserved this. Apparently that situation was short lived, because after 19 days he was back to CJ Entus’ main team, and, according to the coach, that happened thanks to positive results. However, he’s down 4 spots now, but we should really keep an eye out for him next month. Remember, sAviOr fans, hope dies last.

Canata saved himself from the last spot, mainly due to his somewhat good performance in the ProLeague; SK Telecom counted on him and this was a rather good decision from their part, as Canata didn’t let them down, especially against Terran opponents. Still, he’s got a long way to go in order to hang on in the ranking, that’s for sure.

Midas is back in the rankings, ladies and gentlemen! To those who love the Baby Bear Terran, I’ve got great news: he is officially one of the 30 best Korean progamers and he got here only because of his ProLeague results. He’s still not material for individual leagues like he was back in 2006 but this surely brings a ray of hope to his fans.

The last spot belongs to XellOs, who is far from being the Perfect Terran anymore. He barely manages to win some ProLeague games against mediocre and above-average gamers, let alone win anything related to an individual league. This month might be the last one for him in the ranking and judging by his skill, we may not see him for a long time here.

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