EPT(Warning: wall of text)
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The Code S group nominations are always fun, because the viewers get to catch a fairly honest glimpse of the players' personalities outside of a competitive setting. Some joke and tease, other swagger, and some seem to try their hardest to not change facial expressions for the entire three hours. The highlights are always the looks of relief or terror as players see the next season of the GSL start to take shape before them. Players try to get a fair shake by bargaining and cajoling their fellow competitors into picks that suit them. The true character of players come out- the smart ones take the supposedly easy wins where they can, but sometimes fall into the trap of false security as a result. The brave ones proudly pick former champions while the pool is still deep, and often pay for it. This season’s set of nominations was one of the most dramatic, mostly due to a joke-gone-wrong by Jinro who was acting as Huk's proxy.
For those that may not know, the process goes like this: Mvp, last season's champion, is immediately placed into Group A to play on the first day of the next season and chooses an opponent to play against. The rest of the previous season's quarter-finalists then pick their group letters, which determine what days they play on, and one opponent to face in the first round. Then, starting from Group H and working up to Group A, each player who was picked in the first round gets to pick another player for his group, although due to the bracket structure they won't necessarily play each other. After this there should be just eight players left. Then, working alphabetically from Group A to Group H this time, each third-picked player picks a final opponent to play in his group until all eight groups of four are set.
The picks started with Mvp this year, who apparently had been going around scaring people with threats of facing them in the first round. In the pre-pick chatter, Mvp revealed that his grandparents do not give him money for holiday presents anymore, as the three-time champ obviously does not need it. Without much though, Mvp went right for Code S stalwart Ensnare, who looked none too pleased with his future opponent. Mvp said that Ensnare needs to taste Code A for the first time, and that he is the player to send him there.
Runner-up Top obviously picked the opposite side of the bracket as Mvp, choosing as most do to play on the very last day of Ro32 matches. Despite being considered a TvT expert, Top said he does not much like the mirror match and so wanted to pick a Zerg. And in fact, his winning percentage varies just .8 percentage points across match-ups, all falling in the range of 60 and 61%. It must just be that he has played more TvTs than the other two match-ups combined that he is widely seen as a TvTer. He ended up picking Coca, and requested that Coca pick a Protoss in return. When asked for comment, Coca crestfallenly said he already believed that he would be going down to the Up-and-Down matches.
Polt was up next, and he was immediately grilled about his recent departure from Prime. As had been hinted at before, Polt simply said that he preferred to practice on his own schedule. When asked to opine on the Terran surplus, Polt outright said that he thinks it is due to Terran's strength as a race. He went on to elaborate that many Terrans present there did not deserve to be in this month's Code S, and so he ought to drop some of them down to Code A. But he decided to pick his best matchup instead, choosing Killer. He claimed to have picked Killer because he was the first loss Polt suffered after his Super Tournament win, and he wanted revenge (a bit odd since Polt later beat him to advance out of that same group). Killer responded by claiming that Polt had been mad dogging him in the waiting room, and that he had only not responded then out of respect to his elder.
July was the last Season 5 semi-finalist to pick. He chose the opposite side of the bracket as Mvp, taking up the third slot. July said he knew exactly whom he was going to pick, and picked HongUn with little fanfare. HongUn was very happy with his Ro32 matchup, saying that he wanted revenge against July, and that he has recently become a PvZ master, not having has lost in the matchup in a while. The players went back and forth for a while discussing maps, an exchange that ended in HongUn's pronouncement that he could defend anything July throws at him, which prompted a "we'll see in the game" statement from July.
Next up was Jinro, who was picking for HuK. Jinro pretended to pick SuperNoVa on the ironic pretenses that HuK, a former teammate had always hated him and had been secretly waiting to take him out in a tournament. But after getting a reaction from SuperNoVa, Jinro took his magnet off and put Virus on, to a chorus of "ooooohhhhhs" by the commentators, who informed him that once a player is on the board, he cannot be taken off. Jinro stiffly replied that those rules had never been explained to him, and that he would not have done it had he know. And many awkward laughs and forced smiles later, Jinro took a hard stand and pronounced that he was "not going to fuck over a friend like that." After a bit of shocked silence Mr Chae decided to let it slide. Virus seemed to be happy with the decision as he preferred to play a Protoss early anyway.
Ryung had the unfortunate role of following such a stressful situation. He picked group B, meaning a likely Ro16 match against Mvp, due to a scheduled hospital visit the day after those games are to be played. He said he had heard people criticizing his play style as being boring, and so wanted to pick a terran he could show some fun games with. Of course that meant a pick of MarineKing. MarineKing promised more fun matches with his next pick for the group. Ryung was fine with that telling MarineKing to pick his rival MMA for a third terran in the group.
Genius picked next, and bewailed the lack of Protoss players, saying he should switch races. Genius grabbed Happy's name of the board and cited a desire for an easy opponent as his motivation. Happy was happy not to play a mirror immediately, and expressed regret that he hadn't made it very far in the last Code S. Happy finished on a happy note, hoping that he and Genius might advance into the Ro16 together.
The final quarter-finalist to pick was Keen, who said that he hopes to face DongRaeGu in the finals. NaDa was the last player to be picked in the first round, a gutsy choice by Keen. Keen justified it by saying he was hoping Nada would be a good luck charm that would help get first in the group, an odd sentiment. NaDa expressed gratitude for being picked by Keen, complimenting him on his skills and potential. This praise inspired Keen, who said that he felt an added pressure to preform well next season due to NaDa's esteem.
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CoCa chose SuperNoVa for real this time, claiming that it was a retaliatory strike to force TOP to face a teamkill
Killer swaggered up to the board next and announced his intentions not to pick a Terran as Polt had requested of him. He picked up both MMA and DongRaeGu, the two players seeded into Code S through MLG, which Killer said he considers the easy way into the tournament. Coach Lee did not look pleased with either potential selection. Killer ended up making the first 3-race group with the absent DongRaeGu as his selection, fearing the SlayerS player MMA would force a team-kill as Coca just had.
Happy happily had the pleasure of choosing next, and said that he had been leveling up for the past month after an early exit from the GSL. Always-cheerful Leenock was the choice, a revenge match against the young Zerg for knocking out Happy's teammate Yoda from the Up-and-Downs.
HongUn, who apparently is called the "sick man" in Korea and almost quit StarCraft 2 due to injuries, was next up. HongUn formed another 3-race group by picking GanZi, since he had often shared a group with Code A finalist in the past. There is apparently some bad blood between the two players as well due to a SlayerS victory ceremony in the GSTL that caused HongUn to throw away his headset.
Virus picked asd on asd's request, and the two said that they planned to conspire together to choose their next opponent.
When it was his turn to pick, NaDa revealed that he was taking a break from school this semester to focus on his game. He also said that Keen had been beating him a lot lately on the ladder. Despite this admission of already having a tough first-round opponent, NaDa picked another Terran challenge in MMA. NaDa's reasoning was that he had been slacking in practice lately, and so this was his punishment to himself that would spur him into a full StarCraft 2 gallop. NaDa also promised some unorthodox builds in the coming season.
MarineKing, fresh out of the "hellhole" of Code A, had been considering MMA until NaDa picked him. He had also wanted to play DongRaeGu for his cocky attitude. But instead MarineKing went for the last Protoss player Puzzle, who immediately accused MarineKing of avoiding macro games when they played on the ladder. MarineKing responded with a little bit of counter trash talk of his own, saying that he never felt the need to go to a macro game against him.
Ensnare finished off the second picks to flesh out Group A. Ensnare expressed doubt at being able to beat Mvp and picked Clide, who was quite sad about being in the same group as Mvp. Clide talked at such length about Mvp's skills and the
hopelessness he was experiencing that Ensnare's feelings got a touch hurt, and he didn't have much to say after that.
As the number of choices began to thin, the hemming and hawing over choices predictably petered off.
As the number of choices began to thin with the third picks, the hemming and hawing over choices predictably petered off.
Clide, wearing capris, put Noblesse into... the wrong group before completing Group A with all Terrans in exchange for a promise of coaching from Mvp. Noblesse expressed fear of Mvp but indifference towards the other two terrans in his group, which seemed to hurt Ensnare's feeling a little bit more.
Puzzle picked Bomber to join him, Ryung, and MarineKing in a really tough Group B. This surprisingly equalized the number of Zergs and Protosses left at three a piece. Bomber actually admitted to feeling uncomfortable playing against MarineKing, despite his well-proven TvT chops.
MMA quickly went off about not being in the same group as MarineKing and Ryung, as he had been looking forward to those matches. Instead, MMA chose the hardest player left in the pool, Nestea, who funnily enough said that he was going to pick MMA had he been picked earlier. It is interesting to note that MMA beat NesTea in the RO32 last season. NesTea announced after some talk that he would be taking his fourth championship his season.
To finish up one entire half of the backet, asd picked Zenio, who actually beat asd last season. Zenio commented to asd that he has sent similar revenge-seekers down to Code A before, and asked "Why do you want to go to Code A?"
Ganzi picked LosirA, the last zerg, and spawned a war of words over whether aggressive or defensive play wins out in the long run. Ganzi opined that the more aggressive styles of July and himself would allow them both to advance. LosirA countered that his vZ is not good enough to make it through, so the two zergs would make it to the Ro16. HongUn was never brought into the conversation.
Leenock chose jjakji without hesitation, probably the easiest player left. jjakji brought up some ladder shenanigans from Leenock, who had tried to /dance jjakji out of a game on the ladder.
Genius picked TaeJa for DongRaeGu after revealing that DongRaeGu had been talking trash about TaeJa's skill level behind his back.
That left only aLive to join Group H.
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The groups ended up surprisingly balanced race-wise, with just one all-terran group and four groups with all races represented. Here they are:
