With the round of 24 behind us, the round of 16 is ready to begin. Join Sayle and Elegant on Saturday, Mar 02 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups A and B!







Holy. Check. I think that sufficiently describes the round of 16 group situation and I could probably just stop writing there. Unfortunately, TL isn't paying me just to regurgitate SC2 memes.*

First, a couple of fun facts about the players who advanced to the round of 16. Of the 12 players who made it out of the round of 24, 10 of them were top two finishers in their respective qualifiers. The only two players who got to the finals of a qualifier but failed to make it out of their group were Julia and andreyy, who coincidentally both qualified from qualifier #4. In their place, we had two players who qualified on points: TerrOr and NeMu who were first and third in points respectively. These 12 players are now joined by our four invites (Sziky, Michael, dOTY and skzlime) to make the groups you see here.

Now on to the actual groups! Fortunately for everyone except Harem, we have surprisingly few ZvZ opportunities in the round of 16. The first day of casting may feature a few as we have five of our seven Zergs in groups A and B, but groups C and D contain just a single Zerg each. As an added bonus, this means we'll have at least two non-Zergs advancing to the round of 8, which I'm sure is a relief to many including the TLS organizers. Which non-Zergs will advance though, and who their Zerg opponents will be is completely up in the air.

The round of 16 will start off with a bang with group A featuring superstar foreigner Sziky facing off against TechnicS, G5 and SouthPark. While Sziky and TechnicS may be the favorites in this group, I'm sure everyone would love to see what oldschool hero G5 can do against the Zerg menace.

Group B is full of character as we have fan favorites Bakuryu (MustacheZerg) and Pro7ecT (Neo Terran) in a group with Michael (CHEESEKING) and NeMu (y staff no pick me?). With our only random player in this group along with the infamously cheesy superbly creative Michael, there are bound to be some crazy games.

As a Protoss player and fanboy, group C makes me cry a little on the inside. Knowing that two of my favorite Protosses could potentially knock each other out is disheartening, let alone the fact that TerrOr and eOnzErG are ridiculously good as well and could just eliminate two Protosses in one go. Considering the current conditions of all the round of 24 players, I'd say this is the group of death and almost impossible to predict.

Group D rounds out the round of 16 with a nice balance of Terran, Zerg, Protoss and a racepicker (Ramms plays TvZ, TvP, PvT). Dewalt is coming off the back of a surprising 2-0 victory in his round of 24 group while trutaCz is in dominating form. Ramms seems to be recovering from his shaky performance during the earlier qualifiers as well and should be a serious threat. The one mystery to me is skzlime, who is rumored to be slightly out of shape, but considering he all-killed top foreigner team LRM in the finals of the last Gambit's Cup, I doubt any of his opponents are going to have an easy time.

With the round of 16 being the first appearance of the invites in the same best of one group stage format as the round of 24, there are bound to be crazy games, upsets and overall excitement here in the TLS. How will the invites fare against the players who have fought their way here? Will the Protoss and Terran be able to hold back the wave of Zerg domination? CAN ANYONE BEAT SZIKY?!

* TL actually isn't paying me at all. They blew all their budget hiring SpongeBob to cast the round of 24 :/




I can't believe myself when I say that a group with Sziky and TechnicS is the weakest group... That's what I said when the groups had just been put together, and some agreed with me. This is however only how I feel about the group as one. There are two clear favourites in my opinion - round of 16 invite Sziky and qualifier #1 runner-up TechnicS. These two players will make it very far, either ending up in the final or in the semifinals. These two are two of the strongest players in the foreign scene.

TechnicS has absolutely crushed so far. Not losing a single game as Zerg in the TLS yet. The bulgarian Zerg has only lost to eOnzErG trying to beat him as Protoss, just because he felt that's how strong he is. Unexpectedly for many, TechnicS crushed his round of 24 group beating both Drone and Pro7ect in convincing fashion.

Sziky is a well known player, undoubtedly the strongest foreigner. He has gone toe to toe with players like Pusan, Sky, Anytime, HiyA, sAviOr, and Dove. Most famously beating Doctor.K in a showmatch. Lately in the foreign scene he has 2-0'd both dRaW and eOnzErG, and beaten players like Pike, Bakuryu, TechnicS, Karate, and Bibiane. The list goes on and on. Something else noteworthy that we put in the invite announcement was that Sziky has won ten defiler tours and won both ISL 2 & 3.

These two players are the reason why I call this group the weakest out of the four. G5 and SouthPark both barely made it into the round of 16, finishing second in their groups going 2-1. Their games were not played in convincing fashion either. G5 managed to dodge INF3cted due to a walkover and was counted out against TTF for a while until he amazingly pulled it back. SouthPark did beat Jim two times in ZvZ but looked shaken during the game against dRaW. These two will have a rough time getting out of this group.

Sziky should prove to be too much for anyone in this group both in ZvZ and ZvP. Sziky beats Southpark in the first game. TechnicS plays G5 in game two, TechnicS' play is too solid for G5 to beat, in a long game or with some tricks up his sleeve. TechincS goes on to the winners' match. The match between Sziky and TechnicS can be close, it's hard to tell exactly what form Sziky will bring on that day. Although TechnicS 3-0'd Sziky in the BWMN Open it was on wacky maps and it's not certain both parties played to their full extent. There is no doubt in my mind that Sziky will 2-0 this group. Even though SouthPark looked shaken against dRaW it was mostly due to him not managing to close out the game. He did in fact have an advantage for the majority of the game. If SouthPark can play out a game fully he should be able to win against G5. I expect TechnicS would want to win against Sziky, so he will have practiced his ZvZ a lot, and should win against SouthPark.







Before the scheduled time to referee last week for group F I was chatting to NeMu in the lobby. We were discussing how his round of 16 group would go. He was confident enough to let me decide what match-ups he was going to play. I told him he should play TvZ and ZvT.



Unfortunately for me NeMu isn't making it easy for me. He also said that he had practiced a lot with Cosy before his group. NeMu said that Cosy would also crush his round of 24 group. Needless to say Cosy got knocked out 0-2 as predicted. Even though NeMu tells me he is going to crush his group, considering the opposition he has to face, it's very unlikely that will actually happen.

The invite in this group is Michael. An incredibly strong Zerg on the team sas. Although not having played much lately he has won against players like vOddy and skzlime, but have lost to eOnzErG. This week though NeMu is his opponent. NeMu's insane confidence will scare Michael into defeat.

Pro7ect still hasn't felt scary at all, it hurts me so much to say that he is the underdog in the group. While Bakuryu has impressed lately getting out of his round of 24 group in first. The Mustache Zerg should prevail without too much trouble.

Even though I have NeMu's back I can't see him winning against Bakuryu, plus I'm too biased. Bakuryu goes 2-0 in the group. Much like Bakuryu; Michael is too strong for the current state that Pro7ect is in. Michael takes the game. Considering how crazy my previews have been so far I'll end on the bombshell that NeMu beats Michael again and advances to the round of 8.

PS. Any sane person would vote for Bakuryu and Michael in this group. I like TvZ.

Player	Staff Picks
Sziky (7)
	2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, kjwcj, Epoxide, Sayle, Harem, Falling
TechnicS (7)
	2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, kjwcj, Epoxide, Sayle, Harem, Falling
G5 (1)
	Hyde
SouthPark (1)
	Hyde

TIL Hyde is a hipster. A good thing too, or else we'd have to put two frowny faces in the picks for this group. Sziky and TechnicS are clearly the staff favorites here, and I think a poll of the general TL population would look similar. It's interesting to see such a clear cut vote even as far in as the round of 16, and it's a testament to just how strong those two players are. However, I wouldn't count G5 and SouthPark out just yet. G5 especially was faced with a lot of doubters after advancing from his round of 24 group and it looks like the staff continue to doubt him. With the opportunity to focus solely on his PvZ, I have a feeling that this old dog could come out and surprise everyone.

Player	Staff Picks
Bakuryu (7)
	2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, kjwcj, Epoxide, Sayle, Harem, Falling
Michael (5)
	2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, kjwcj, Sayle, Harem
NeMu (2)
	Epoxide, Hyde
Pro7ect (2)
	Falling, Hyde

Once again, hipster Hyde is here to save the day! Although this time he is joined by Falling and Epoxide, giving our underdogs two votes apiece. It sounds kind of crazy to call Pro7ect an underdog in any situation, but that seems to be the case here. Or maybe the staff are just playing the odds and only picking Zergs to advance. Either way, NeMu is probably not too happy about all this. Our lone random player made it out of his round of 24 group despite getting just a single staff vote (go Epoxide!) and seems completely undaunted by the players in his round of 16 group. If he makes it to the round of 8 as well, it might be time for the staff to give him some credit.

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That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Mar 02 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups A and B! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: