MSL Prediction Contest

Jaedong's looking for revenge against BaBy for knocking him out of the OSL, and given the Tyrant's track record I'll put him up for winning that. Hyuk versus July, sadly, we're going to give to the Hyukster both since that's what Hyuk does, and July is nowhere near his old level of play. In the winner's round, although Hyuk is super effective against Jaedong, as long as the Dong doesn't decide to 12pool he should be fine. Once again, July is set to lose, since BaBy's TvZ is nothing to be laughed at. With that said, I'll give BaBy the advantage over Hyuk in the final match.

Of course, this group I feel is the most likely for upsets. Jaedong has been "slumping," BaBy is hitting his potential, July is, well, July, and ZvZs may get Hyuked.

Flash is Flash, and Midas is going to be rolled over, no question. Action, being the baller that he was recently with his AK over free, Kwanro, Crazy-Hydra, and ZerO, should be able to hold the edge in a ZvZ against HyuN. Unfortunately, Action is no Jaedong and Flash will just walk all over him in the Winner's match. On the loser's side, HyuN's sub-50% ZvT will be mauled by Midas's 65% TvZ. The final match will be fun, but I'll give Action the edge.

The tedium of watching the inevitable hour-long TvTs will be alleviated by Kwanro's zergling all-ins. However, Kwanro hasn't been doing so hot in his ZvTs recently. fantasy, though, has shown some pretty good results for his recent ZvT matches, and I believe fantasy should be able to hold off Kwanro's hyper-aggressive early game to ride the match for a win once Hive tech rolls around. Sea's TvT is nothing to be laughed at, and even though he tends to choke in tournaments, I'll give him the edge over Mind. I do say though that Sea will choke against fantasy, giving fantasy the 2-0 and a ticket to the Ro16. Kwanro, being Kwanro, will just simply run Mind over with zerglings, even though Mind has a good TvZ. In the final match, I'll bill Kwanro over Sea both because Sea is "cursed," but also because Kwanro is quite the individual's terrorist.

This is the first group that has a protoss player in it... so I'm looking forward to more varied matches. While Kal is only 5 for 10 in his last 10 PvZs, two of those losses come from Jaedong and EffOrt, while the other one is from type-b in a Bo3 that Kal won. Conversely, while great's 45-25 ZvP record seems nice statistically, his wins are mostly over relatively lower-class players. Given the state that Kal has been playing in recently, I predict that he'll take the match. On the other side of the quad, HiyA's TvZ is nothing to laugh at (he has Jaedong for a training partner... yeah...), and even though YellOw[ArnC]'s ZvT is of comparable statistics, I think Magikarp will be able to splash his way to victory. For the winner's match, Kal's PvT has been monstrous of late (see his latest game against Flash), and that'll put him slightly over HiyA in an epic match. Another ZvZ comes in for the loser's bracket, and for some odd reason I'm feeling great over YellOw[ArnC], though I'm not comfortable about this one. Either way, HiyA will walk over whichever zerg manages to come out of the loser's side, putting him and Kal in the Ro16.

This'll be an easy group for the Dragons. BeSt will walk over MVP easily, and Stork's PvZ isn't to be challenged by non-Jaedong zergs, especially one of Hydra's PvZ caliber. In the PvP that will ensue for the winner's match, Stork should be able to take it over BeSt, though I think it'll be a fun match to watch. Loser's match will give us a lackluster ZvT, but I feel like Hydra will walk away from the match over MVP. And for the finals, BeSt will take the match, because even though his PvZ is shaky, I don't believe Hydra is the player to take advantage of that.

Hwasin is hella sexy, and will take it over FireFist. I sense 5pool. ZerO versus JangBi should give us a very nice match, but ZerO is so cute that JangBi should just give up before playing. But seriously, I call for ZerO to take the match. Hwasin hasn't been able to beat ZerO the last few times they've played, and ZerO's ZvT has been fantastic lately, so ZerO will advance 2-0. JangBi will wipe the floor with FireFist, though I sense another 5pool incoming. For the finals, I'm very conflicted. On one hand, Hwasin's TvP is subpar, being below 50%, and JangBi's PvT is over 64%, meaning that JangBi should take this easily. Furthermore, Hwasin is 0-4 head-to-head against JangBi. On the other hand, Hwasin always makes it, being the definition of stability, and this superstition makes me wonder. Let me take a minute to go find a coin, and I'll flip it for that. Okay, JangBi makes it out alive with the 2-1, though if there's any match I'm unsure of, it'll be this one since it's Hwasin in question.

Wings (from the MSL group ceremony thread) was right: this is definitely the group of righteous names, and it should produce some good matches. All four of these players I'd give a good chance to move on, but Pure least of them all. As saying such, Light-bonjwa is going to eat Pure for a warm-up snack. Calm against free is going to be a tough match to call, but free is 5-1 head-to-head with Calm, so I call for free to win. For Winner's match, Light, still fuming over free's recent BMing after the Match Point match, will unleash the bonjwa and take down free, allowing him to 2-0...Just kidding, Light lost to PerfectMan, PERFECTMAN, for [insert deity here]'s sake. free's got this, and hopefully will lay off the BM this time. Although, admittedly, free[bm] would make such a cool nickname. Calm, using the power of "imba" that resides in ZvP, will walk over the mediocre PvZ fielded by Pure, allowing him to move onto the finals. However, Light's been on an 11 game TvZ streak in Winner's League, and Calm's not been doing so hot since Flash dismantled him in the last MSL, so I predict Calm hides inside his Clamshell, giving Light the WL-bonjwa the win and a 2-1 into the Ro16.

Really though, why does free have to be spelled with a capital F in order to be TLPD-ized. Hmmm.

Oh good lord, so many PvPs going to be played here. Stats, while being the Lord of the Chin, will unfortunately fall to Shuttle's PvP (plus, Shuttle has ToSsGirL's blessings ). On the other side, Movie's PvP is weak and Bisu's is... well, Bisu is Bisu, so Bisu's going to take this easily. Bisu versus Shuttle is going to be a cool match, and while I'm all for Shuttle pulling some crazy stuff, I'm going to give the match to Bisu if the game is played straight-up. Stats or Movie is another one of those coin flip things, and I've still got my coin from Hwasin versus JangBi. Okay Stats wins, sorry Movie. Regardless, Shuttle should win over whoever advances from the loser's round, so Shuttle over Stats for the 2-1 and a trip to the Ro16.

Damn, that's a lot of Protoss TLPD symbols.

A1 Jaedong
A2 BaBy
B1 Flash
B2 Action
C1 fantasy
C2 Kwanro
D1 Kal
D2 HiyA
E1 Stork
E2 BeSt
F1 ZerO
F2 JangBi
G1 free
G2 Light
H1 Bisu
H2 Shuttle

Do not question Jaedong's PvZ. Jaedong 2-0 easy over BeSt.

Sorry BaBy, your TvP is subpar and Stork is sexy. Simple 2-0 for Stork to advance to the Ro8.

Flash is god. Do not question him. 2-0.

This is going to be tough. While ZerO is a star, Action recently just mauled him in eSTRO's recent all-kill of Stars. ZerO's ZvZ also isn't up to par, but being the star that he is I think he'll take this 2-1. Of course, ZvZ is a crazy match up, so I wouldn't be surprised at all (only saddened) if Action moves on to the Ro8.

Oh man, these two are both really good players with solid TvT. However, in light of recent situations, where Light has been owning everybody around him, as well as Light having a 5-0 record against fantasy, I expect Light to take this 2-0, but probably actually 2-1, since the Terrorist has sexy vultures.

Hrm, this is another hard one to call. Both players are good at this matchup, and they've only gone head-to-head once with the win going to free. I can see this going either way, but I'll give the slight edge to Kwanro, who'll be opting to end it early or mid-game, since once he gets to Hive tech and late game starts, free's late game control will run him over. However, Kwanro, like Stork, is sexy, and has been doing very well at individual leagues recently, so I expect him to be able to handle the pressure better than free and take this 2-1 to advance to the Ro8.

Fights between the same team are always to be slightly awkward, and Kal's no stranger to these, having 3-1'ed Hwasin during last year's MSL. However Shuttle, who I expect will have some crazy builds prepared for this match-up, should provide more of a match to Kal than Hwasin did last year (Shuttle, at least, won't be able to not siege his tanks ). If the match is played straight up, though, I expect Kal to win in the late game. Definitely going to be hard to call... but sorry Yoon Joong, I'm going to have to give this match to Kal, 2-1, due to his experience in these types of situations.

Bisu's recent losses to go.go are sad, true, and HiyA is definitely solid at TvP, though he's fielded only a 3-5 win-loss against Protosses since the start of Winner's League. Anyway, Magikarp's recent TvP hasn't been too stellar. Head-to-head, Bisu is 2-1, but those matches were almost two years ago... Another tough match to call, but I'm going to give this to Bisu, else the fanboys/girls are going to start screaming if he loses. Oh wait, they'll scream if he wins as well. 2-1 Bisu, in my opinion, would be an excellent way to break out of his slump. However, Magikarp may just splash Bisu to death, and by that I mean Bisu might just fail, but I hope that won't be the case.

Jaedong: #2
Stork: #9
Flash: #1
ZerO: #4
Light: #11
Kwanro: #6
Kal: #7
Bisu: #15

Flash versus Bisu is epic, and the two players have a close 11-9 record, with Flash having the 11. Looking at stats alone, this might be somewhat even... but Flash is a monster, with his "weakest" match up of TvP being at 67.57%, and having won 9 out of his last 10 TvPs, with one of those wins against Bisu during Flash's Winner's League Reverse All-Kill against STX SouL. Flash will take this 3-0 or 3-1 and move on to the semifinals.

All streaks must come to an end, eventually. We all know how Jaedong is about his individual leagues (not including his recent OSL failure), and will definitely work on his recently sub-Jaedong level ZvT. However, Light won't go down easily, having a 5-7 record against Jaedong (and in their most recent match Light demolished Jaedong), so this match will be amazing. However, Jaedong is Jaedong, and this is his time to rebound. Except an epic showdown, with Jaedong winning either 3-1 or 3-2. One thing's for certain: this Ro8 match will be anything but one-sided.

Another great match in the making. Both Stork and ZerO are good at their respective match-ups, and that will produce quite the clash. However, Stork's recent PL and WL has shown the true power of his PvZ, including a win over ZerO and an epic win over Jaedong during the WL ace match for Samsung KHAN versus Hwaseung OZ. ZerO, as well, has shown a lot of recent wins against Protoss, though his last six ZvP wins have been against players who aren't particularly known for their PvZ. Either way, I expect this to be close--either 3-1 or 3-2, but with Stork ultimately coming out on top. However, I'm really looking forward to ZerO's queen usage.

While Kal leads the head-to-head with a 5-4 record against Kwanro, a look at the TLPD shows Kwanro to be tearing up ZvP, going 8-2 in his last ten games, with wins against players like Stork, JangBi, and Kal. Compared to this, Kal's recent PvZ has been nothing impressive. I fully expect Kwanro to take this 3-1, moving onto a second consecutive semifinals appearance.

Flash: #1
Jaedong: #2
Stork: #9
Kwanro: #6

Stork is amazing, but Flash is even more amazing. While Stork is one of the few players (I actually don't know about any others besides Leta?) with a winning record against Flash (in this case, 11-10), Flash has won the last two games in a pretty convincing fashion. Both have fielded similar results against others of the opposing race recently, but Flash... eh, Flash is going to Win. I recall Last MSL, when BeSt was so hyped as to being able to stop Flash, and we know how that ended. Flash's revitalized TvP is going to stop The Bird with his inhuman micro and amazing timing pushes. 3-1, possibly 3-2, for one of the most exciting matches in this year's MSL.

Jaedong is 4-0 against Kwanro, and despite his recent slip-ups in ZvZ, going 6-4 in his last 10 games, he is still the king of ZvZ. His losses have come at the hands of the likes of ZerO and EffOrt, S-class players, and Modesty, a ZvZ sniper. All in all, even though JvZ questionably doesn't exist anymore, Jaedong is still the best at this match up. However, Kwanro's ZvZ isn't anything to laugh at either, going 8-2 in his last 10 games with losses to Jaedong and Modesty. Being the volatile sac of confusion that ZvZ is, we can expect to see many zerglings from Kwanro, though if there's one thing that counters Kwanlings, it'd be the even more fearsome Donglings. I expect a lot of low econ games (DON'T 12POOL JAEDONG OKAY?) with some epic zergling and mutalisk micro, with the final result being 3-1 or 3-2 in Jaedong's favor.

Power Outage > Jaedong + Flash
Power Outage > Jaedong + Flash
Power Outage > Jaedong + Flash

POWER OUTAGE BONJWA OKAY? Just kidding, but I honestly am going to say that a lot can happen between now and the finals. Jaedong and Flash are my two favorite progamers, and I really can't think of one of them to win.