And the JAA are doing just great in ESL now aren't they??????

If you browse around the ESL site a bit, you should notice that the JAA did a few matches against mediocre european clans already. However, we never put as much effort into playing ESL matches as we did against DoX for example. Not only did we lack the preparations, the motivation and the proper arrangements, but we never seemed to have anyone from the white team besides Kain, 13 and me showing up. Therefore we ended usually just losing rather high to clans without a reputation at all.

Yes, i'm quite sure theres no one in the JA who could get into even top 25 esl.And i already told, i play to win, and that wont change.

And btw SaZ, you'd better shut your f***ing mouth about how good i am, I have no doubt that i can wup your arse.

I didn't say poking was the only thing you need to be the best, just one of the things.

Perhaps. But since i know that there is no way for me, specifically, to be good without poking, that is the chance i must take.

esl and bwn players only play to win.
you only talk of players outside JA. are you really that sure there are no good players in JA?
maybe you should hop in and get beat once in a while to wake up lol

I dont think every poker uses poking to make up for a lack of skill.

Guys like Dureal (check his records on the ESL) dont just win their matches because they are good at poking. They are just very good at this game, and they use poking and swaying to enhace their defensive and offensive power.

Look at it like this:

In the ESL, 99% of the top players poke. If u can play 317 duels in the ESL, and only lose 10 of them, play 2 draws and win 305 times, u must be doing something better than the other 50 guys who just as much poke their behinds off.

Like most of u said, poking doesnt take that much skill. But there must be something that sets the pokers apart from the top-notch pokers. IMHO, thats pure skill.

I have yet to meet someone who pokes that i could not beat.

Ive fought dureal too, a while ago, and the guy does have good timing, however, he relies exclusivly on poke to land hits.

Yea and therefore its totally impossible to be good without poking.
If everyone on bwn does it, so what? How does that possibly mean that you cant be good without using pokes? If everyone in the JA is going to spam yellow sweeps, so what? Does that mean that its impossible to be good with red? Hell no.

You see, back in the days when jk3 had a huge community full of different and very talented players, poking existed as well. But back then, there were lots of people who didnt poke and these people were very successful in both esl and bwn. Ever heard of the old clan Master? Or maybe youve ever heard of some players called Angelus and Nichos? None of them ever used pokes back then and they still were very very successful players.

So, its pretty obvious to me that you wont find any non-pokers in the esls top50 anymore. The reason for this isnt because poking makes your opponent invincible. Nope...the reason is inactivity.
Since i dont want to look like some show-off, i wont mention what kind of achievements me and kain were able to make without relying on exploits at all, in the 2on2 ladder a half year ago. I wont mention how far i got before ive left the esl for good or what sort of people ive been able to beat.

One thing should be well known though. The JAA was able to emerge victorious against most of the known bwn clans without even thinking about using exploits in the matches.

Thing is, if you say you cant be good without exploits, then you wont. Yes its as that simple.