Altitude Nation Wars Semi-Finals

< Match Point >
< Neo Beltway >
< Neo Aztec >
< New Heartbreak Ridge >
< New Empire of the Sun >
< Eye Of The Storm >
< Ground Zero >

< Match Point >
< Neo Beltway >
< Neo Aztec >
< New Heartbreak Ridge >
< New Empire of the Sun >
< Eye Of The Storm >
< Ground Zero >

< Match Point >
< Neo Beltway >
< Neo Aztec >
< New Heartbreak Ridge >
< New Empire of the Sun >
< Eye Of The Storm >
< Ground Zero >

Poland is probably the one most unstoppable force of the four remaining nations, many of their players are consistantly well performing in the various foreign leagues, it's been a weel known fact for quite some time and they were one of the favorites comming into the NWs and now they are definetly the top favorite remaining that with having Russia and Hungary eliminated from the game. Though Poland is the top overall team remaining, they have a very Zerg heavy 1v1 line up which can turn into a problem if they run into some Zerg snipers and/or bad BO counters in ZvZ.

Top Players
Mazur - Team Captain
Race:
Stats: 7-0
Mazur has his weaknesses, neither his PvP nor PvT are quite up to par with what his PvZ is, though realistically, Mazur has a good chance of defeating any player which Latin America can throw at him, their best chance would probably be with Gotunk or Terror, but it has yet to be seen if either of these players will be able to take on the current undefeated monster from the group of death.

SneazeL - Team Captain
Race:
Stats: 3-1
SneazeL has shown extraordinary play while in shape, yet he has also shown the opposite when less so. Thus far in NW, SneazeL has yet to consistently play for the Polish team, and this really just shows the depth of their team because SneazeL is a top foreigner, finishing 4th in ISL2, he definetly would always be on the top line of ANY other nation. And so, SneazeL comes out with a near flawless reccord, the one loss is really more attributed to his faults more than to Must's tryumphs, 12 nex vs 2 gate times 2. All in all, SneazeL has recently shown that he is quite proficient in PvP and his PvT has always been quite strong and so it will come down to really if a Latin Amercan Zerg can snipe him if he does happen to apear in the line up.

Pike
Race:
Stats: 3-1
Pike is one of the top foreign zergs in activity, arguably second behind Sziky in terms of zergs, however, that position is debatable especially being as his last loss in NW came at the hands of Kolll in a ZvZ. Really though, even though I can't say that he is second best to Sziky in terms of Zerg, I'd say with confidence that he is the best all rounded zerg player next to Sziky, he can play all three matchups with decent success in all of them however, isn't the most specialised zerg in any of them. So, realistically, Pike should win unless he is matched against someone who is particularly proficient in the matchup vZ in which case we should see some good games.

Choosy
Race:
Stats: 5-3
Choosy, Choosy, Choosy, quit being so choosy . Anyhow, Choosy is a very knowledgeable player who had an excessively strong run leading into the break, he excels at several matchups with both P and Z and presents an all round juggernaught force for Poland assuming that he continues where he left off. Assuming Choosy is still in shape following the two weeks break(and he doesn't decide to offrace against a top foreigner again) he could very well turnout to be the star player for his team.

TrutaCz
Race:
Stats: 4-2 / 3-3
TrutaCz is a very strong 2v2 player and so his micro management is exceedingly strong, as such, he excels at the fine art of ZvZ and can turn a win against just about any foreigner in this matchup. Latin America would be well placed to force a macro game against TrutaCz in which case I believe he would be disadvantaged, as for the 2v2, TrutaCz and Johnek make a great team, however, going up against the best 2v2 line up in the league, I don't really like his odds. If TrutaCz could snipe CaStrO, it would hugely benefit Poland.

SouthPark
Race:
Stats: 6-1 2-0
SouthPark has a very interesting style of play and it he has done surprisingly well considering. Like TrutaCz, he is a 2v2 player and so exceeds at micro games, therefore his ZvZ is his best match up. However, he's managed to pull many wins against Terrans and Protosses which are quite simply in my opinion due to a lack of preperation of the opposing team, the same strategies and same micro oriented wins have been SouthPark's ways for quite a long time and players haven't seem to have caught on. Realistically, though SouthPark's stats are nice and shiny, unless he runs into a ZvZ, I think a well prepared player will definetly defeat him. 2v2 on the other hand will probably define SouthPark's role on the team and I strongly believe that SouthPark and Lurek will be sent out to combat Belladona and Viciado. With the relatively recent win of the defiler 2v2 tournament over Scan and Bella, I think Poland will be much more confident with this alternative.





Latin America is really going to be the underdog in all the remainder of their matches, they don't have the top 1v1 line up, however, if they manage to go into the 2v2 match up 3-2 as they did vs Russia, they will most likely come out victorious being as their 2v2 line up is heavily favoured against any other. Though, if the reputation of latin america lives up to what it has been, we could end up seing some cheesy builds snipe off some better players.

Top Players

TerrOr - Team Captain
Race:
Stats: 3-3
TerrOr is arguably the top 1v1 player in Latin America, though, he will have to step up his game if his team is to move through to the finals. TerrOr had a great reccord this season and has a great reccord in Gambit's Cup, however, when it came time to really come forward, TerrOr did not provide for Latin America losing to Pro7ect and Jumper in the quarter finals. Luckily for him, neither of those games prevented his team from moving forward and he has yet another chance to redeem himself, he is the star player, there is much pressure on him to win. He'll have to shrug off his losses and stick to his strong suits, if he gets caught against forced multi-task, he could find himself behind even with his strong strategic sense.

CaStrO
Race:
Stats: 4-1
Realistically, I would have put CaStrO in TerrOr's position on the team if it were up to solely performance, however, CaStrO doesn't seem to me like a carry player. He's more of a sniper and his only significant win is against PallMall and untill more significant results have been produced, he can't really be considered the top asset for Latin America Especially when he feeds into most of the opposition's top match ups. He'd be best off against SneazeL and/or Pike though I wouldn't say he's got great odds against either, probably 50/50. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some cheese builds from CaStrO.

GoTuNk
Race:
Stats: 2-1
GoTuNk's play is generally very standard, he had been constantly improving going into the holidays and so we could very well see GoTuNk come out stronger than ever this week, it's really quite difficult to tell, he may not even be there as he did not participate in the quarters, however, one thing is certain. Latin America NEEDS GoTuNk. He's a solid player and his play is much like TerrOr's in the sense that he has the same weaknesses which he will without doubt attempt to stay away from a very apm/multitask demanding build. He should be very predictable and I expect the Polish team should be well able to counter GoTuNk with proper preperation.

HanDy
Race:
Stats: 3-1
HanDy's play has been good when his team has needed it most, he won both of his quarter final matches and is a big reason as to why Latin America is in the position they are today. HanDy doesn't have the utmost coverage in the foreign scene and so it's a bit hard to judge his play, however he seems to be a cheesy terran player and so it'll be interesting as to how Poland can respond to this. I suspect any safe build would be best against him, though he may be well capable of a macro game as well.

Viciado + Belladona
Race:
Stats: 3-0
Viciado and Belladona are the absolute strongest 2v2 team in the league and so they should be able to make easy work of any 2v2 team from Poland assuming they know what to expect and don't get too over confident.





All in all, the Polish line up is far stronger than that of Latin America and also far more reliable, Poland will have their top 5 players ready to go on Saturday, that much is guaranteed, however, Latin America has yet to prove that they can accomplish this. Which at this stage of the game is absolutely crucial especially given the team which they face. They managed to pull off a huge upset against Russia, however, the line ups worked quite well in their favor and so they were able to pull the upset even without their top line, however, the Polish lineup will not be so forgiving.

Prediction
Poland 4-2 Latin America

< Tau Cross >
< Jade >
< Icarus >
< Electric Circuit >
< Neo Aztec >
< Fighting Spirit >
< Destination >

< Tau Cross >
< Jade >
< Icarus >
< Electric Circuit >
< Neo Aztec >
< Fighting Spirit >
< Destination >

< Tau Cross >
< Jade >
< Icarus >
< Electric Circuit >
< Neo Aztec >
< Fighting Spirit >
< Destination >

The United States is the only undefeated team remaining in the Altitude Nation Wars, yes, it was not the absolute strongest division which they were placed in, however, one thing very significant about this winstreak is that they were in the same division as Asia Pacific, their semi-final opposition. What this means is USA has already defeated Asia Pacific twice in the competition and so they're probably feeling pretty confident about this match up. It's really just going to depend on who shows up for them at the time of the game. If they have their top 5, I have no doubt that they can pull a win in this being as Asia Pacific has not won a single 2v2 in the aNW to date.

Top Players

Game
Race:
Stats: 7-0 3-1
Game's stats are through the roof, now all this would have been discredited if it were just for his regular season's opponents however, in the playoffs, Game has aquired such key victories for his team over Must and CaStrO which could have very well turned into a loss for any top player. Realistically, without his quarter final performance, the United States COULD have been left without a spot in the semi-finals. With the loss of Andrey to inactivity, Game has a guaranteed spot on the line up and is going to have to continue his streak if the United States is to win this semi-final match.

Michael
Race:
Stats: 4-1 1-0
Michael is the United States's top player, there is no doubt about it. If there is an ace match, Michael will be playing it. The team will really be relying on him in this semi-final, there is no doubt, if Michael doesn't win, the United States will probably lose, this was almost the case against Russia in the quarter finals, however, his team gave him a shot at redemption with an ace match and surely enough, Michael succeeded and solidified USA's place in this semi-final. Michael is an extremely cheesy player, however when he doesn't cheese, he is even more deadly so his opponents really can't afford to be over cautious.

Jumper
Race:
Stats: 3-2
The stats for Jumper are fairly missleading. His play was looking exceptional leading into the break, really a good player who has really stepped up his game to another level. With two wins in the quarter finals, Jumper is a huge part of his team's success and they are going to need a repeat of that performance as they head into the toughest game of the season.

fLIp
Race:
Stats: 2-1
fLIp has not played much in the Altitude Nation Wars, but remains as one of their top players. Given his inconsistency in showing up, there is no way of telling if he'll be there or not. For any United States fan you're probably hoping that he will be there because its a very good asset for team USA and they're going to need everyone they can get.




Team Asia Pacific has had their ups and downs this season, now in full stride, they did well of removing Germany from the competition and are now faced up with the united states for a third go. This presents the lesser of two possible semi-finals being as Asia Pacific lost to Poland, they gave the top seed, however, already having placed a win between that match and this one, it is quite probable that they have recovered whatever confidence they may have lossed in that game. Team Asia Pacific would have a huge amount of pride if they could pull a win against the USA given their past encounters, however, these losses may shake their confidence a bit given the second time they actually had a top line up.

Top Players

Heroes
Race:
Stats: 5-2 0-4
Heroes has shown great play, however while his stats are good, he hasn't come through when it really mattered, his two losses are just about the most important games he's participated in. So Heroes is a really good standard protoss player, however, he still has to prove himself in a situation where it really counts against a top player.

cvcvbvbv
Race:
Stats: 6-0 0-2
cvcvbvbv is the ace player for Asia Pacific. If it does come down to an ace match, he should be their player, he has yet to lose a game and has been playing against some decent to good players best of which being Choosy(Admittedly Choosy is also at fault for playing Terran), however, that really doesn't take away from cvcv's success and if cvcv doesn't show, I don't think his team stands a chance.

kkllklkl
Race:
Stats: 3-1 0-1
One of the top players of team Asia Pacific, has not really shown any weakness up till the quarter finals where SouthPark's micro heavy style managed to defeat kkllklkl with ease. Very strong macro player.

The.WK
Race:
Stats: 1-0
He's a top foreigner, not much is known about him being as he's only played once in Nation Wars... More would be known about him by people who've met him on the ladder and so they may know his playstyle better.



Realistically, this match is going to be a 4-3 victory for either team. The ace match should be fairly close matched and so it really is quite difficult to call. Lag issues and Asia Pacific's lack of a 5 man line up will definetly play a role to some extent and the United States gets the given advantage of winning the 2v2 before it even starts, Asia Pacific has not managed to win a singe 2v2 and I don't expect them to start now.

Prediction
USA 4-3 Asia Pacific