The best 4 square players ever

Radek · Post by **Radek** » 11 Apr 2009 09:49

Make yours votes top 3 of the world.

My votes are:

1. Ners
2. Steve Goldberg (haven't seen him in action however Ners told me he is great, and I seen Ners haha)
3. Ianek/Wiktor Debski

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 12 Apr 2009 06:54

I'll limit mine to those I have actually played with...

Steve
--Extremely precise placement, makes excellent use of angles.
--Plays the "politics" better than anyone else, no one comes close. No one.
--Deceptively quick on defense

Sebastien (Sadly, I have not played with him nearly as often as the other 2, but I was extremely impressed the few times we have matched up)
--Monster defender! Makes digs that are just amazing (yes, I can't say that enough!)
--Very athletic
--Strong offense

Tom
--Kills at will, great use of screens
--Solid defense
--Incredible mixture of graceful athleticism and cold brutal skill that's fun to watch, just not fun to defend against

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 13 Apr 2009 00:55

Cool thread, and I'm in it!

From the people I've played against: (in order of # of games played)
Zeke, Ianek, Steve, Marc Giard, Seb

I've played with Zeke the most. We are 50/50 usually. He's very fluid and can use any part of his legs or body to hit it where he wants it. He thinks about tactics and strategy and counterattacks and people's weaknesses that surprise me. Very good analyst.

Montreal: Ianek, Marc Giard, Seb, Kolo
I won and lost against each of these guys. I played with Ianek the most while I was there. We both placed 3rd at NYJ. Kolo can be scary, but I think if you can dodge his cannon kick you can do well.
I lost to Seb by like 1 or 2 points at NYJ. The thing with him is that he can keep the bag up forever (very good defense). I made the mistake of trying to score quickly against him, when he can save everything the better strategy would be to let him make a mistake (as long as you have good defense as well).

The Montrealers love Marc. He has a talent that you can't put your finger on. You don't even see why he's scoring points - he seems to be playing standard. We might have played 3 games he won 2, i won 1.

Steve is really good and I'll prolly put him at #1. I've seen him in action a bunch but I never get to play him much b/c I only see him once a year at NYJ and I'm always too busy to play him. We played 1 match last year that I won.

I'm a lil iffy on putting Marc and Seb in there because I've played so few games with them, and maybe Zeke and I know each others moves more.

Steve
Marc/Seb
Zeke

MathieuGM · Post by **MathieuGM** » 13 Apr 2009 11:04

Cool topics!

First of all i have never played against any european player and everything i will say here is based on what i saw in montreal and at NYJ. So do not expect my opinion to be perfectly accurate (Tom an Zeke seems to have more knowledge than me about every player

). So, my top 3 will more likely be an ''american top 3'' as i never met any european player

.

1-Marc Giard/Steve.
I player some games with Marc; he is really incredible. As tom said, i never really know how he scores points, but he always find a way to do so. In my opinion, what makes him so good is that he play a way no one else play, so it's really hard to read his game. In my opinion, Steve have a little bit more technical way to play the game than marc. But he is just so consistant from what i saw of him. Allmost no mistake in his game and he never gives an ez shot to you. I never saw Steve vs Marc Giard, so it's really hard to say who's the best. In my opinion they are the two best in their department.

2-Seb. He plays net too, i believe it can not be a bad thing when you try to play 2 square?. As Tom and Zeke said, good luck to make him drop the damn bag ... Really hard time. He also have a more traditionnal style then Marc, wich made him maybe a little bit easier to read. Still, the precision of his shots is soooo good and that's is the way he will score points againts you.

3- Ianek/Tom
I played most of my games against Ianek. His game close to the middle line just kill me. He have a damn way to make you believe he will hit the bags again and then let it fall in your square. Also, he use very well his body to hide the bag for a moment. I have played like 2 ou 3 games against Tom. The way he plays remind me a little bit Marc. I think i haven't played enough with him to describe his style well. Still, he his really good.

Once again, my opinion haven't a really big value have i only know some players in north america. Still, from what i saw at NYJ and montreal spring jam, that would be my personnal top 3.

I would like to know the opinion of Ianek, Steve and Sebastian about that! With Tom and Zeke, they seems to be those in north america that knows a lot about 4-square

.

Thanks!

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 14 Apr 2009 11:59

Mathieu brought up consistency. I think with such high skills across the board on all the players mentioned, the most consistent player is the one that would be truly the best player in the world.

Radek · Post by **Radek** » 14 Apr 2009 13:32

So far it seems Steve is a King of the Hill

If I counted everytime when someone is voted to first place as a 5 points, and everytime when someone is voted for second place as a 3 points and for third place as a 1 point, I'd have those results so far:

1. Steve 18 pts
2. Seb 9 pts
3. Marc Giard 8pts

That would also Steve's leadership, wouldn't it?

Of course it doesn't matter that he has 100% more than Seb who is located on second place, It's just to show places in voting, If i used 3pts for 1st voted for a 1st place, 2pts for second place and 1pt for third place, results would be same.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 14 Apr 2009 21:58

This topic is hilarious.

Hands up people who can count to three

Radek · Post by **Radek** » 15 Apr 2009 03:46

I doubt there is a sence to make lists for 5 best players on the world, 10 players, or even more.

Top 3 is important and this thread is more like..."for fun" than "real source of statistics and 4 square masters league 2009"

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 15 Apr 2009 08:33

Jeremy wrote:This topic is hilarious.

Hands up people who can count to three

I wanted to say go fuck yourself, but I won't b/c I like you.

Actually Radek, no one has talked about top squares player that many times, and not everyone has seen the other players play. So I think a general discussion spawned out of it, with a little bit of trying to throw your top 3 together. Yeah I know we could have taken our tie for 2nd place and made that 3rd place.

This thread is for fun or speculation b/c I don't think top 3 can be named definitively yet.

Radek · Post by **Radek** » 15 Apr 2009 12:25

Yeah thats why I said "IF I counted" instead of "So boys and girls here are current results of Best 4-square player".

I think, we can observe that it's commonly believed that Steve is really good/the best though

Of corse, people might have different opinion about it, I just want to say we can observe here something common in posts of different people

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 16 Apr 2009 20:46

What about Kolo? Or is he only good @ 2SQ? And Daryl?

MathieuGM · Post by **MathieuGM** » 16 Apr 2009 21:13

Kolo is an amazing player too, but i think he is just a little bit under the player we mentionned before

.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 25 Apr 2009 09:04

There's so many talented people in Montreal that even though they are not mentioned, they're still strong players. I gotta make it there at least once in my life (preferably while my body can still play). I mean, top level net and 4-square? What more could I ask for?

I have not played against Genzu since NYJ 03, I think. He was the first person I played with that had so many trippy serves and trick shots and used them extremely effectively.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 28 Apr 2009 12:27

Turns out Genzu will be in Chicago this weekend!

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 28 Apr 2009 22:25

what what what

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 11 May 2009 14:10

Zeke wrote:Turns out Genzu will be in Chicago this weekend!

But I didn't get to play with him.
I fail.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 23 May 2010 22:47

Just played 4 square with Daryl at East Coasts. So tricky and fooly. Dude rips at 4 square. Drew Martin is also damn good at it. Those 2 were severely going at each other's throats. Lotta fun to watch and be a part of.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 05 Nov 2010 10:37

I haven't played against Steve in quite some time, but from what I've observed he's still very much up there.

Marc Giard and Szymon are in my top 3, though I'm not very good. But yeah, those two guys scare me. Hard to score points on, and also very tricky on offense.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 20 Dec 2010 07:31

I wrote: Sebastien (Sadly, I have not played with him nearly as often as the other 2, but I was extremely impressed the few times we have matched up)
--Monster defender! Makes digs that are just amazing (yes, I can't say that enough!)
--Very athletic
--Strong offense

We had an epic match up during 2-square quarter finals at NYJ and my respect for Sebastien and his game have skyrocketed through the roof. His defense is fucking insane!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 21 Dec 2010 10:44

Yeah, that match was one of the highlights of the tourney for me, and probably the best 2sq match I saw at NYJ.