EPTToday was the SpoTV Starleague Season 1 qualifier series. It saw the qualification of 29 of the 32 players that would start off in the Challenge series of matches. Here are some tidbits I pulled from the results.
The Home Team
- Of the 29 qualified, 25 (86%) were from the Korea region. That is, they participated in the Korea region for WCS in 2014.
- Returning from EU were two that qualified. The first was San, who took out TOP, lost to Byong, then beat Center and soO to qualify.
- The other EU transplant was Patience, who defeated SuperNove, Billowy, Rain, lost to TY, then beat HerO to qualify
- The only AM region Korean to qualify was TaeJa, beating Oz, Curious, losing to GuMiHo, and beating Curious again to qualify.
- Only one player managed to qualify without have any presence at all in WCS 2014: MarineKing. He deafeated 람이님, TurN, lost to Parting, then beat RagnaroKto qualify.
- Oddly enough there were more than a handful of locals with little WCS 2014 success that managed to not only qualify, but did so without dropping a match. These include Terminator, MyuNgSiK, TY, FanTaSy, and GuMiHo, who spent 2014 tied with several other players for second-to-last place in the global rankings at 213th.
The Prodigal Sons
In the the following I listed several prominant EU and AM Koreans that made their not-so-triumphant return to the homeland and failed to make the cut.
[Prominant here meaning they placed Top 8 in Premier at least once.]
EU
- MC lost to Dark and Soulkey in the semis
- MMA lost to TerrOrin the quarters
- jjakji lost to Dear and YongHwain the semis
- First lost to DynaMite and Byul in the semis
- YoDa lost to Pet in the Ro16
AM
- HyuN lost to Flash and Dream in the finals, then lost to TRUE in the wildcard RO16
- Oz lost to TaeJa in the quarters
- Alicia lostto Solar in the quarters
- Revival lost to LabyRinth in the quarters
- Bomber lost to DynaMite in the quarters
- Arthur lost to TerrOr in the Ro16
- Pigbaby lost to Centerin the quarters
- Heart lost to HyuN in the quarters
- HerO lost to Patience in the final, then lost to Curious in the wildcard Ro16
Provided next, and without comment!, are Korean... Koreans that failed to qualify that placed in Top 8 at least once in WCS 2014.
KR
- Zest lost to Rogue and Leenock in the finals, then lost to Symbol in the wildcard Ro16
- soO lost to Bbyong and San in the finals, then lost to YongHwa in the wildcard semis
- Rain lost to Patience and HerO in the semis
- sOs lost to GuMiHo and Curious in the semis
- TRUE lost to MyuNgSiK and INnoVation in the finals, then lost to Curious in the wildcard quarters
- ParalyzE lost to Bunny in the quarters
- (Perhaps most heartbreaking of all) DongRaeGu lost to FanTaSy in the semis, herO in the finals, then lost to YongHwa in the wildcard finals. So close!
