#nL.Cube: Introduction

[Ping]

The Best Saberists of All Time

#nL.Cube

Part 1: Introduction

What makes for a good player? I must be more precise, since not all forms of play will concern us in this article. The question should rather be: What makes for a good saberist? If the various saber-only gametypes provide realms of competition where multiple players face each other in a race for points, then surely someone who is good at competing within those formats can be considered a good saberist. But then what does it mean to be good at competing within those formats? At first, it may seem that there is nothing more to it than winning a lot of games because the one who gets the most points at the end of a game inevitably wins the game - and that is certainly true. However, even if we say that winning a lot of games is that which makes a saberist a good one, the question that was posed at the start still remains open: How do you win a lot of games? In short: What makes for a good saberist?

This question can be answered by considering a very related one: Who is #nL.Cube?

Introduction

Cube is a Polish staffer from the team no.Limits. However, he is not just any staffer, he is THE staffer. Let us take a step back and consider that throughout the history of competitive JKA, Polish players have been widely known for their excellence in fighting with the staff. It is true that there have been many notable staffers that were not Polish and that the Poles yielded many world-class single saberists as well (e.g. Wonder or Mariachi), but if you played on a base server in pre-2010 JKA and your opponent was Polish, chances were he would pick staff as his weapon of choice.

Polish staff was feared for its aggressive efficiency. Whereas early competitive staff play mostly revolved around using staff as a faster yellow stance, patiently looking for openings, taking one's time in exploiting weaknesses in the enemy's attack patterns, switching to yellow stance now and then to bait the opponent into doing the same for the sake of meeting his yellow stance with a flurry of staff swings, most Polish staffers played differently. They were aggressive to the point of recklessness, facing the enemy's swings head on, pressuring relentlessly, forcing jumps, forcing mistakes.

Cube was not just any Polish staffer. He was the Polish staffer par excellence. He embodied everything that made the Polish way of using the staff so distinct and recognizable - but not only that; he perfected it, brought it to new heights. He epitomized the style. There was little that Cube added to it; no new teachings, no radical changes in play, no introduction of new ways of thinking of the staff as a weapon. There was only plain, cold perfection of an otherwise established way of playing. And that was what made Cube one of the most remarkable players of JKA.

Playstyle and Innovations

It is one thing to use a certain style of play and be successful at it; maybe even have a distinctly unique style that is easily recognizable. Again, there are many excellent Polish staffers playing on the servers even to this day. It is quite another thing to be by far the most competitively successful player utilizing a given style. It is very difficult to point out exactly why Cube was so much better than any of the other players that used the same style of staffing. The source of his mastery is almost mysterious - he is just that little bit faster, that little bit more precise and more dexterious than all the others, and that is what makes all the difference. It is not a difference in kind - after all, many people played the same way as Cube did. It is a difference in quality.

As is typical of Polish staffing, Cube was extremely aggressive in his play. Whenever he played 1v1, the opponent was immediately on the defensive. Cube did not wait for you to show an opening, he created openings through sheer force of will. His playstyle was that of a large wave powering through any structures his opponents might try to raise against him. Cube was everywhere at once: at each point in time close enough to bridge the gap between you and his lightsaber and at the same time far away for you to have no chance of hitting him.

His complete mastery of the delayed staff swing bordered on the inexplicable. Nobody could execute it as well and as precisely as he did. This in turn allowed him to break through many saber blocks with ease and also made sure that whenever he were to land a hit, his opponent would take grave damage - oftentimes being killed in a single swipe. It made him fast and extremely effective.

A good illustration of all of that can be found in his 1v1 matches against some of Ozone's top players: o³Dark and o³Osiris. Consider that although Dark was not known to be a player who competed a lot in the 1v1 matchup, he was certainly one of the best player in all of JKA, and given that it was Osiris who remained Ozone's best and most successful duelist for the entire duration of the team's existence, Cube's decisive victories against both of them only serves to highlight the staffer's prowess.

 

 

However, Cube was not just a dominant force in 1v1. There are those who specialize on team matchups and do not excel as duelists or have no intention of playing 1v1; and then there are those who excel at dueling but whose capabilities do not transition very well into various team match ups. Cube was neither, because he was both a fantastic duelist and a great team player. Whenever he was in form, which he almost always was, he could pull off such amazing stunts like scoring 8 frags within a timeframe of two minutes against a team like p3G that was back then made up almost entirely of world-class ex-aXiom players.

It is therefore not a surprise that Cube was both a significant addition to his team as a player and a successful leader of team NoLimits as well as the Polish national team of 2006. Most notably, he would be the driving force behind his close acquantaince's and long-time 2v2 partner S3chT's development from a fairly mediocre single saberist into a world-class staffer, one that only Cube himself would surpass. Having to face one of them was a great challenge on its own, but having to face both of them at once was a sheer nightmare. Thus it came to be that the 2v2 team comprising Cube and S3chT would end up as one of the most excellent and successful 2v2 teams in the history of the ESL.

Achievements

Cube's legacy is a powerful one. If we abstract from his contributions to the art of staffing and the role he played as a captain of various top teams and merely consider the sheer amount of success he has had as a saberist, it should come as no surprise that I consider him one of the best players of all time.

A few months into joining the ESL International 1v1 ladder, he was placed consistently in the top5, spanning a time of over 3 years -
and given that in 2004-2007 the competition was much more fierce than it would be ever again, because the game was still very young and contained far more talent than it would ever do again, remaining consistently in the top5 for almost the entire duration of JKA's prime is on its own a feat worthy of praise. But that was not all. Ever since a certain player who in this article shall not be named stopped hogging the first spot on the international ESL ladder, Cube immediately ascended to occupy #1 for almost the entirety of 2006.

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In comparison to other top players of his time, Cube maintained a positive record of 2-1 against o³Osiris, 3-1 against Hell Raiser and 3-3 against Warhammer. He eventually reached 1626 points on the ladder in early 2007, a score that would take Warhammer almost two years to beat and that Hell Raiser never managed to break.

His famous 2v2 team with S3chT boasted similar success, being active for the most part of 2006 and leaving the ladders with a record of 39 wins to 7 losses. On top of all that, Cube pretty much dominated the Polish 1v1 ladder ever since it was opened in January 2005.

He was immediately placed #1 and remained on the spot for almost the entire duration of his stay, being eclipsed only thrice, once by FroZZt for a few days in early 2005 and twice by Wonder in early and late 2006. After Cube left the ladder with 82 wins and 7 losses in early 2007, it would take the then second placed Wonder another half year and nearly twice as many matches to reach Cube's equivalent of 1698 points.

As if that were enough, Cube placed high and won a range of high level tournaments. He most notably won both of the annual 64 player JKA 1v1 World Cup tournaments of 2005 and 2006, defeating such players like aXiom][Evil (aka Shirasaya), o³inSane, *aiming.divinity, zentur1o, o³Osiris, o³Dark, Hell Raiser, and many other top players.

But to return to our first question: What does it mean to be one of the best players of all time? I am not sure, but I do know this much: If we all had played between 2004 and 2007, then regardless of whether or not we would be counted amongst the lucky ones with enough talent and skill to be placed anywhere near the top of any of the foremost competitive European ladders, we would, I am sure of it, at one time or another, inevitably and surely... get Cube'd.

This is part 1 of 2. Read on to part 2 here.

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[Rooxon]

Wow, this is some seriously fascinating stuff written in here. I used to try and prove dual sabers could also be good. These past few weeks I found out a single saber might be better.. but still. I like to be different. A shame JKA Multiplayer is more or less dead now.

[Ping]

We've said that line about "JKA Multiplayer being more or less dead now" each year, going back as far as 2004. So I don't think it's a good way to approach the game, especially given that it's still being played actively both on public base severs as well as in the ESL. The competition is not a joke either. Having said all that, there have been a few really excellent dual saberists in JKA, both on the US (Sublime, Dark_Knight from KoP) as well as on the EU side (aoshi), but it's true that dual players have been overall in the vast minority!

[afi]

Haha that match is a classic cause of the statement.

 

Icarus was also a very good dual player being #1 in the 1on1 ladder pretty much from 2008-2010. I think he played single against staff players though which gave him an advantage compared to other dual players who couldn't play any other saber type. bAtsu was pretty good as well

[Smoo]

Oh wowzers pro at noobstick loljks I use to have staff as my main, I remember some other popular ESL members were Merlin and L1ght, do they still play? Also, I noticed youtube vids earlier, they disappeared?

[afi]

mrl (maerlin) called himself l1ght at some point. Balin called himself l1ght as well for some time. I think they both don't play anymore

[Ping]

Fixed the youtube links. They appear as they should on the front page, but didn't in the forum post here.

[Rooxon]

But of course, I'm sorry if I said anything too harsh. I'd love to see a JKHub tournament one day!

[afi]

Btw this was the first competitive-related article in the history of JKHub

[Yberion]

Good article.

 

P.S: S3cht said (on skype) that he was top 5 esl 1v1 with his single, so saying that he was a mediocre single saberist is exaggerated from his point of view. @@Ping

[Ping]

Maybe it is exaggerated, but his staff was better than his single, and his staff developed a lot once he joined nL. I think this much we can agree on.

[Sovietskiy Partizan]

Thanks for videos. Now I remeber why I don't play baseJka online for years :]

[wonder]

and that the Poles yielded many world-class single saberists as well (e.g. Wonder or Mariachi)

 

waaaaat