It is the biggest mystery in Red Alert in years. An unidentified player arrived on the scene and annihilated everyone in 1v1. We will assess some of the clues in order to try to reveal the identity of the player. For example, his 2v2 game doesn't seem as strong as his 1v1 game suggesting a player more used to the early incarnation of the game which was dominated by 1v1 play.
In the May 2022 1v1 Ladder, Gganbu absolutely destroyed the competition. For example his last series with Akame (Bea5ty) he won 6-0 and Cowsmoo (Dynamic) 7-2. He absolutely murdered anyone and everyone who faced him in the May 2022 Ladder and proved himself to be easily the best 1v1 player in the world in 2022. Not even remotely close either as the statistics prove.
So the question is, who is he/she/they?
There have been a range of speculative theories. I'll dive into each of them.
1)Ford - This has been the most obvious suggestion. Ford supposedly retired and announced on his own blog that he had retired from Red Alert. The timing is suspicious and the playstyle of Gganbu tends to correlate well with the old Ford playstyle (extremely strong aggressive early Germany play with insane late game production).
Ford has strongly denied that he is Gganbu and has even posted a video showing himself playing against Gganbu in a one off Ribbon game . Moreover, Ford made a cameo appearance on a discord voice chat server with Leigh and others while Gganbu was playing in 2v2 which seemingly refutes the possibility of Ford being Gganbu.
Of course, Ford is a master of manipulation and it is possible he could have had a close friend login to the Gganbu name and play a few games in order to keep up the disguise so I would not rule out Ford being Gganbu completely. He is definitely one of the strongest candidates based on circumstantial evidence.
On the other hand, having faced Gganbu and Ford many games, I would honestly say that Gganbu's 1v1 play is even better than Ford's was. That could of course be down to practicing and try harding every game in order to reach his maximum level, however.
2) Milo - a strong candidate known for amazing Germany play but less good in 2v2. This fits the profile. Milo specialised in tank production with Germany and standard maps. These are aspects Gganbu excels at.
I would say however that Milo was known to be somewhat passive in his play and was subjected to getting rushed a lot. Gganbu on the other hand is hyper aggressive in his playstyle. Once again, however, this might be down to Milo putting in the practice and adjusting his game after studying his video collection of the most successful strategies. Milo was known to obsess over every detail of the game in order to optimise his strategy. If the meta game in 2022 demanded hyper aggressive light tank play then you could rely on Milo to work it out.
I would say that in my honest opinion, 1v1 Gganbu was definitely stronger than the best version of Milo I encountered so unless Milo put in some improvement then I doubt it was him.
3) Niklas - This old legend was known as one of the best players whoever lived and has many famous maps named after him such as 4c and NSC. Niklas was known to be in correspondence with people in the community as recently as 2021. Known for his exceptional Q tanking and aggressive play, it is not farfetched to opine that Gganbu could be an older version of Niklas returned after decades.
I would say that this is highly unlikely however. Niklas would be much older nowadays having played at the top of the game in the 90s. I do remember Gganbu struggled in his first couple of weeks playing once he appeared suggesting that Gganbu was someone shaking off rust. To conclude, it's highly unlikely that Niklas is Gganbu but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
4) Lovehandles - I would be amazed if Gganbu is Lovehandles. I know LH well and he finds RA mundane and boring, I really cannot see him dedicating 12 hours per day to Red Alert like Gganbu has done recently. I'd be incredibly shocked if Lovehandles is Gganbu. Literally the only link you could make is that they are both insanely good players. Not enough for me. Pass.
5) RC1985 - This is certainly not impossible .RC was an extremely strong Germany 1v1 player with a great rush. Perhaps the motivation would be to keep a low profile while competing in order to avoid toxic dramas and conflicts with which he was associated in the past. It would not be the first time RC used a hider name (Nutrition) so it's certainly not impossible. I would say, however, that similar to Lovehandles,I can't see RC having the same drive which Gganbu is exhibiting. If I'm honest I do think Gganbu was stronger than peak RC as well but it's not impossible that RC did some secret GQ training. Very unlikely on balance.
6)Ehy - It's definitely not Ehy. Their playstyles are too different. Ehy was very pragmatic, resourceful and strategic. Gganbu plays with his foot to the pedal going extremely aggressive. Think Katsh or Yuzgen suddenly becoming a 1 dimensional SGQ Germany robot, that's how unlikely this would be. It's just not Ehy. Next.
7) At0m1 - This is actually one of the more likely possibilities. Of course At0m1 would hide if playing 1v1 given his personality type (Wizard of Oz vibes). The amazing Q and general tanking and production are attributes associated with At0m1. There is no evidence linking Gganbu and At0m1 however other than the fact that At0m1 has not been seen online for a good while. Not enough evidence to support it but we certainly cannot discount this theory.
8) Mclovin - This is also possible given their extremely high strength in 1v1 play and their ability to Q early and aggressively. McLovin was one of the nicer personalities I encountered on CnCNet however and I really couldn't see him caring enough or going to such extreme lengths to conceal his identity (unless it was a desperate measure to avoid Lordy badgering him to join OP).
9) Faust - The suggestion would be that Faust wanted another shot at 1v1 with Bea5ty and so constructed a new identity and playstyle. I do feel though that Gganbu is even more clinical and a slightly better player 1v1 than Faust so I deem it unlikely. Moreover, Faust was known for his amazing 2v2 teamwork which is probably the weakest part of Gganbu's game.
10) Someone else? Maybe he is just a new RTS player to Red Alert. Perhaps he is someone else from the past not mentioned here such as an old legend such as DeepBlue or JJ? Could Gganbu be the same player as M3mber? M3mber being the rusty version relearning the game? The M3mber player name disappeared from Ladder when Gganbu appeared. Food for thought.
Regardless, perhaps OldPr0 is trolling us all and is actually trying with his new mouse and just steamrolling everyone on Easy Street. Who knows. Maybe we will never know. It's fun to speculate however.
Who do you think it is? If I had to choose I would say it's just Ford mind-fucking us all.
Thanks for reading.