Earl
The slippery thing about greatness is it can be achieved in different ways. One player might be considered great because they are consistently among the best for many years (like Busty, Ralf, Niels) even if they were never considered absolutely the best in the world. Other players dominate for a couple of years then seem to cool off (Mike, Appleton). There are some players who got deep enough consistently enough to be ranked pretty well, there are others that were streaky and would win 3 tournaments in a row and then fail to cash for a handful of events. Who's to say which is better?
Earl is really special though. He was both explosive, consistent, and his dominance stretched over many years. When Earl was at his peak he was one of the greatest 9 ball players to ever play the game, and I believe he would be ranked in most people's personal top 5 historically for 9 ball.
Today there are two questions: 1) Can he play with today's elite, and 2) Can he control his emotions and deliver his performance.
I think Fargo Rate accurately explains both. He is around 790 WITH HIS DEMONS, so if that is indeed a leak in his game it is built in to that score. That means he might have the potential to play physically at a level around 805-810 but that he can only deliver 790 of it. Watching Earl play it's easy to be so spellbound by his pocketing that you overlook his air tight pattern play, amazing cue ball and speed control, strong intuitive kicking, and really great safety management. He really has elite knowledge.
The dangerous part about Earl is that while he is a 790, you never know what you're going to get. If he doesn't handle his emotions he can shoot like a 700, but the flip side is that he can flashback and play sets that would still be considered explosive and dominant. And when he can stay in that zone and put multiple of those sets back to back it can turn out pretty impressive results.
The sad part is he is on the inevitable downswing and he has fewer remaining opportunities to put a run like this together. Other 790s like Siming Chen who are consistent, young, and still building have their future ahead of them. Earl knows his brightest accomplishments are behind him, and that's a heck of a hard loss to grieve. For someone who has devoted their entire self to the game and played at the absolute highest level it has to be really, really hard to see it go. Maybe that has something to do with why he isn't as resilient, he isn't just frustrated with a miss or a lucky shot by the opponent, he is dealing with the heartbreak that he doesn't play like he once did.
But maybe he had a moment of clarity and realized he didn't have time left to grieve, and something inside of him demanded he put that aside and deliver one last great performance. And he sure did! I am so happy he had this experience, whatever baggage the man has I wish him his moment of content.
Maybe he has a few of these left, maybe that was the last hurrah, it's hard to know. All I know is I will enjoy it for what it was. A stunning performance that was a self-tribute to one of the greatest and most historical players in our game. GG Earl.
I too am very glad he played like he did, it must’ve felt great for him and I definitely enjoyed watching.