Many times in my writing career at SK, I have referred to the links between football and esports. These have always been in quite serious columns but today I hope to take a lighter look at the similarities between footballing nations and some of the most talented players in the Warcraft scene.

Moon

In so many ways, Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang represents the old school Brazilian teams. Most tangibly, his achievements are second to none. Just like Brazil, he is the most successful entity in the history of his respective game in terms of titles. Others have caught up in recent years but their legacy – both Moon’s and Brazil’s – remain untouched.

But the Korean is even more like to Brazil in his approach to the game. Brazi’s “you score three, we’ll score four” attitude perfectly sums up the free-flowing style of The Fifth Race. His seemingly care free attitude means that he has always been one of the most exciting players to watch. He features in every good micro movie ever made (as well as some bad ones) and would make it into anyone’s top ten replays list – probably more than once, in fact. In the same way, how many “x best goals” compilations don’t feature a Brazilian player?

Sky

I almost daren’t write about Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li after last time. But once I had the idea for this column he quickly became one of the most obvious choices. To me, Sky represents the Italian style of football perfectly. His base defence – similar to a typical Italian defence – is impeccable. It’s very rare to see Sky lose a base race and if his expansion gets up successfully, it’s practically impossible to take it down again.

But Sky does more than simply hide behind his towers and protect himself. Like the Italians, he is a master of counter-attacking. His games against Yoan 'ToD' Merlo in the past are a perfect example of this. When both players went for an expansion, it was invariably the Chinese player who was in Tod’s peasant line, harassing his economy the second that Tod left his base.

Fly

On a personal level, Weiliang 'Fly100%' Lu represents Holland purely by the fact that he is my favourite player to watch. Matched only by Spain in the modern game, Holland’s attractive, attacking football is a real life mirror to Fly’s aggressive, micro-based style.

Just like the classic Dutch teams of the 70’s, Fly does things his own way. In a day and age where Orcs are slaughtered on the forums for abusing the same strategies, Fly is a real breath of fresh air. His inconsistent form (online, anyway) is eerily reminiscent of the Dutch. Just look at their last European Cup campaign: phenomenal in the group stages, blowing apart teams like France and Italy, only to fail miserably against Russia in the quarter finals. But just like Holland, when he’s on form, Fly is an exhilarating player to watch. His micro is world class and his planning and timing is on par with anyone.

The world’s first weekly esports column, The Zechs Files, returns next week in its regular Tuesday slot.