NASL Season 3 Group Preview

Dexington

Canada7276 Posts

April 06 2012 19:16 GMT

Hey all. It's exam time, which means time to procrastinate! I love Starcraft 2 and I love NASL and frankly I found their preview to be lacking, so I decided to take some time and do a preview of my own.

Group 1

The Players

EG.PuMa

PuMa is the first entrant into NASL 3's first group. Team EG's Terran Korean ace, PuMa first established himself as a top player by qualifying for the NASL season one finals, then besting MC 3-2 in one of the best finals in the history of the game. Following this, he was picked up by EG, and proceeded to become the first Korean king of foreign tournaments. Gold medals in IEM Cologne and NASL 2, as well as top finishes in MLG's, Dreamhack, Assembly and other IEMs cemented PuMa's place as a top competitor.

PuMa qualified for NASL 3 by winning the second season. He comes into this season as the only champion NASL has had. He is a heavy favourite for the group.

GoSu.HwangSin

The Korean ace from team ItsGosu, HwangSin, is the next entrant into this group. A Protoss originally on Korean teams IM and MvP, HwangSin emerged onto the international scene by dominating his way through two TL Opens. He was the first Korean to compete in foreign online tournaments, and started a trend of Koreans taking all the online tournament money. He is known for his very aggressive, sometimes labelled "cheesey" or "all-in" plays.

HwangSin qualified for season three by advancing to the season two finals where he was eliminated in the first round by HerO 3-1.

aTn.ClouD

ClouD is an Italian Terran player coming from team Alternate Attax. While he hasn't won any high profile tournaments, ClouD has made several great runs in high profile tournaments. Round of 16 in every Homestory Cup and Assembly Winter 2012, as well as a quarterfinal finish in ESWC are very good accomplishments for a foreign Terran player in tournaments involving Koreans. ClouD mainly proves his mettle in the German EPS tournament, where he regularly finds himself in the later rounds of each tournament.

ClouD qualified for season three with his record in season two of 3-4, with wins over Rain, MaNa and DarkFoRcE.

mTw.TT1

[/img]

Coming from Canada, TT1 is a Protoss player on the German based team mTw Mindfactory. TT1 has had many high profile results, most notably a second place finish at MLG Dallas in 2010 behind Jinro. He was also on the "World" team in the 2011 GSL World Championship, where he took down both San and NaDa in the clan war, and Moonglade in the tournament portion, finishing in the top 8.

TT1 qualified for the tournament by advancing to the finals of NASL season 2, where he lost 3-1 to third place finisher Sen in the first round.

FXO.Brat_OK

A recent merger of imba.FXO and FXO has brought the Russian powerhouse Terran, Brat_OK, to one of the most high profile teams in the world. Also known as the most terrifying person to stare in the eyes, Brat_OK has made his presence known at a few international tournaments. He has made it into the later rounds of Homestory Cups and Dreamhack Summer 2011 as well as making the semifinals of Assembly Summer 2011. He was famously in the best series ever against Stephano at that very Assembly.

Brat_OK qualified for season three by advancing to the season two finals. He defeated DIMAGA in the first round 3-2, before falling in the quarterfinals to Sen, 3-1.

Liquid'Zenio

Team Liquid's second most recent addition to the team, Zenio is a Korean Zerg who has been a consistent fixture in the Korean scene. In 2011, Zenio was in Code S for six of the seven seasons, and also qualified for Code S for both seasons in 2012, though fell to Code A in the first round. He has also made his power felt in international tournaments since joining Liquid, participating in several team leagues and taking high rankings in two IEM events.

Zenio qualified for season three through the online qualifier, fighting his way through Bischu, Panther and Abver to qualify, before falling to Stephano.

Liquid'HayprO

Unfortunately for Liquid, another one of their players enters the fray in group one. HayprO is a Swedish Zerg, who has some of the greatest momentary successes in several tournaments. In the past few months, he has gone from an underrated, often criticised Zerg, to the praised destroyer of NesTea. He has had several good results at MLG's, taking series off of players such as DemusliM, SeleCT, KiWiKaKi and Naniwa.

HayprO qualified for season three with his performance in season two. His 2-4 record was enough, with wins against ClouD and Axslav.

FnaticRC.NightEnD

NightEnD, a Romanian Protoss player and one of the few remaining foreign players on team FnaticRC, enters the fray. The man with the best voice in eSports, NightEnD has been a force in the foreign scene, reaching the semifinals of the most recent Dreamhack, as well as a good run in IEM Kiev. Most recently, he participated in The Gathering 2012 (this weekend, actually, spoilers ahead), where he + Show Spoiler +

made it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by ThorZaIN 2-0

.

NightEnD qualified for season three with a 3-4 record in season two, accumulating wins against iNcontroL, iNkA and Moonglade.