The Global Challengers

“From the shadows I come”

Oh snap it’s DT, run! No, not this time. This time it’s the Chinese Starcraft 2 players are coming out of the darkness and revealing themselves at IEM Guangzhou! Though they have been largely hidden from the West and even from their illustrious Eastern neighbors, the Chinese E-Sports scene has been growing for years, and especially recently after Starcraft II took hold. Starcraft II was released in China less than 6 months ago, and in that time the Chinese scene has really taken off, even if most of us don't know it. Although several tournaments have featured Chinese players, most have been limited to events in China, or online only events.

IEM Guangzhou will be the first time in Stacraft II where Chinese players will be out in force and at an event that many non-Chinese viewers will be tuning into. This is a very big chance to show what they have to a brand new audience in the international fanbase as a whole. Who are the Chinese players coming and how will they stack up?

The Ace: iGXiGua

Make no mistake about it, XiGua may mean Watermelon in Chinese, but nothing is friendly and inviting about this player. XiGua is regarded by many including myself as “The Best Player in China” by a pretty reasonable margin. With his teammate and now manager xiaOt moving into a more managerial role within E-Sports, XiGua is the bright beacon of hope for all the Chinese fans heading into this event.

With his victory at the Chinese Battle.Net 2011 Invitational, XiGua solidified his reign of terror over the Chinese scene by winning three of the largest event held in China back to back to back. The other two events in this run were the WCG Cyber Games China National Finals, and the $27,000+ Chinese 2011 G-League. Like most Chinese players, XiGua has limited involvement in Non-Chinese events, so far only playing in the FXO Invitational #4 Tournament. His run, however, in this online event showed that he is a real competitor in any tournament, as he took series off of White-Ra, YongHwa, ViBE, and SaSe on route to a 4th place finish overall in a very stacked event.

What is unique about XiGua within the Chinese scene is not his style, but in fact the race he has chosen to play. For whatever reason the Chinese scene has embraced Protoss and Terran as their major races, and a Zerg player from China that is amazing in all aspects is something of a rarity. Because of his recent success, players across all leagues in China have been using new concepts in their play and generally learning the finer aspects of macro based play. XiGua is a player who is by himself moving the Chinese Starcraft II scene forward as a whole with every single event he plays in.

XiGua has landed in Group B, which is without a doubt now the hardest group of IEM. The other members of the group include DIMAGA, Rain, and JYP. All three of these competitors are frontrunners to take the whole tournament, and if XiGua is able to fight his way out of this group, it will be an achievement within itself.

Each of the three players present a unique challenge, but none more so then Dimaga. As I mentioned before, there is a lack of top level Zerg players in China, and thus most Chinese players have had difficulty in ZvZ’s against true world class Zerg’s. Rain is without a doubt just a stunning Korean Terran player, and his huge runs in recent MLGs have shown he is far from the all-in, all the time Rain of the old GSLs. JYP has been one of the rising Protoss hope’s in Korea with Sage. He has some of the most fantastic micro and builds out there, and as a member of TSL, is always a real threat. This group should not be missed, and if there is one Chinese player to check out, it’s XiGua.

The Wildcards – AG.YHY and Way

Neither YHY nor Way have made major splashes in the Chinese scene as of yet. However, both players however have been showing massive signs of improvement as of late.

YHY has finished Top 8 in both WCG China and Blizzcon China, and has a very real chance to finish high in this tournament. He is one of the other very few top Zergs in China, though he has always been in the shadow of the beast that is XiGua. He has landed into Group A with HasuObs, PiG, and Puma. HasuObs is a very good Protoss player, however there are A LOT of Protoss players in China for YHY to practice against, and he should be very prepared.

PiG is a bit of an unknown for me but his TLPD shows sub 50% ZvZ, which should leave neither player with a significant advantage. Puma will be the flaming hoop for YHY to jump through, as Puma’s huge recent success in both MLG and NASL will make him the toughest opponent in the group, but but YHY has the talent to keep up with his raw multitasking ability.

Way has finished Top 8 in some minor Chinese online events, and is the one player that will be the biggest question mark coming into this event. There’s little record of him playing any events, and replays are next to impossible to find outside the Chinese community. He is in Group D with Strelok, iaguz, and RevivaL. None of those opponents are easy, but with the large number of Terrans in China, a two Terran group is a god send. Strelok and RevivaL will both be both very opponents matches for Way, and obviously iaguz will offer his best chance at a win.

At the time of writing, the last Chinese player, Jim, had not been announced. Diamond's brief comments after hearing the announcement:

"He's up and coming. He's done pretty much the best of any Chinese player in the Korean weekly, I think he's legit. He hasn't had that many wins, but he's taken games from nettiePrime, Choya, and Desrow."

What does it all mean?

This is the one shot China has needed to get on the map of Starcraft II, and create a desire and demand to see these players at more and more events. With the MILLIONS of E-Sports fans that exist in China, it is positioned to become a major player in Starcraft II, and a major Chinese push into Starcraft II would only help E-Sports as a whole. If fans are asking for Chinese players at MLG, Dreamhack, etc, then it will foster the growth of the scene, and bring in a slew of new professional players and a massive new market.

For the Chinese fans, this is the first time in Starcraft II they are the minority in the tournament, as every other event they've seen featured mainly if not all Chinese players. This could give the Chinese fans a great event to rally around and discover the amazing global competitive scene for Starcraft II.




There's no doubt that the Koreans are the favorites here. They're always the favorites; that's just how it is. But if the Koreans weren't in attendance, then the Europeans would have this easy. And in the off chance that one of the Korean invites doesn't take the whole thing, than they will most certainly have lost to European. Because that's just how it is too.

It's true though, the hopes of the Euro scene took a significant hit when MaNa was compelled to drop out. The hottest foreigner Protoss at the moment, MaNa has recently notched several wins against PuMa, and with good fortune could've repeated his performance at IEM. Sadly, he won't get the chance. But there's reason to be positive about the other Europeans in the tournament. Three of them are on hot-streaks, and two have beaten high level Koreans before in live settings. It would be silly to insist that lightning will certainly strike twice, but equally foolish to discount the possibility of it altogether.

mouz.HasuObs

HasuObs qualified to IEM in a really roundabout fashion. After MaNa was forced to choose WCG Poland over Guangzhou, XlorD and Hasu, the two semi-finalists of his qualifier, faced off for the open spot. XlorD won, then dropped out himself, leaving Hasu the uncontested holder of the final qualifier spot. While each of the other Euro qualifiers have been on impressive runs of play, there's some reason to doubt Hasu's fitness for this event, and they go beyond his underwhelming qualification. With some recent awkward losses, and mediocre tournament performances, Hasu has mainly been treading water; unable to distinguish himself ever since his fourth place finish in the TSL.

One of the reasons might be that his style hasn't seen a good deal of evolution since the deathball days of earlier this year. Hasu seems most comfortable handling a maxed army and multiple bases, a style that isn't always ambitious enough to be called much more beyond 'safe'. As Zergs and Terrans have become quite adept at handling maxed Protoss armies, this passive play is losing some favor.

Overcoming that mindset will be important for Hasu in the future, but fortunately for Hasu, it probably won't matter greatly at IEM, as he has what appears to be the easiest group in the bunch. Take that with the usual grain of salt - YHY is a black box; what data we have indicates that he is at least competent in TvP. PiG is a little better known, and with a less than .500 record in SEA server events, he will most likely be easier to handle. The group's fourth member is PuMa, who is unlikely to lose to any of his groupstage opponents. But there's every reason to expect that Hasu will advance from the group in the second position.

mTwDIMAGA

There are few players more difficult to predict in major LANs than DIMAGA. One of the best players in the beta, he didn't look like a major threat after release until the GSL World Championships, where he became the first player to take a televised ZvZ against NesTea. Then he disappeared again, before roaring back at Assembly Summer. IEM Guangzhou catches him on a hot streak (like most of the European qualifiers) but that doesn't necessarily ensure that DIMAGA will show up and dimaga will stay home.

Unlike Pokémon, progamers rarely share physical characteristics to match their playstyle. DIMAGA is one of the exceptions. The Ukrainian Zerg is one of the most intimidating progamers in appearance and gameplay. Famous in the beta for popularizing the baneling bust, DIMAGA still plays a no-holds-barred aggressive style a year later. In the previous months, pre-patch, he was one of the best infestor-ling users in Europe. He has traditionally favored a units-based defense early, tends to drone in the midgame, and attacks with time-sensitive armies near maxed. A key part of his game is putting on pressure or the illusion of pressure throughout the game. Successful players against DIMAGA need to either prepare early to be defensive later in the game, or need to have efficient scouting to turn the tables and call the Zerg bluff.

DIMAGA's group is the toughest in the tournament, but that's in large part because he's in it. The big fish in the group is TSL_Smart (aka JYP), who is one of the best in the new Korean wave of actually good Protoss players. He's one of the leaders in the Warp Prism revolution, and his single army control might be the best of his peers. DIMAGA will have a difficult time against a player with such strong fundamentals as Smart. Headbutting walls of forcefields is one of DIMAGA's worrisome habits, and Smart will shred sloppy army control. Against the other two members of his group, DIMAGA should be counted as the favorite. Rain is another difficult player to assess, but DIMAGA seems to be the hotter of the two. And again, who knows what XiGua will bring to the table. My best guess is that it'll be less than what DIMAGA has, but that's no guarantee. Expect good things from DIMAGA at IEM, but don't be stunned if it doesn't happen.

Acer.elfi

Elfi is one of those players who I keep expecting to start dropping off. He has a low APM Protoss style that more often then not relies upon surprise and unpredictability as opposed to sound theory. But day after day, month after month, Elfi hangs around and continues to put up impressive results. Shows how much I know.

In the last month, however, Elfi has outdone himself and improved his play in a measurable way. To qualify for Guangzhou, he swept DarKFoRcE, then a little while later, beat Adelscott and Tarson to qualify for IEM New York. In the wake of this success, he was picked up by Acer, and immediately put in his best effort yet in the MSI Pro Cup 2, taking down Tarson again, then ToD, and edging the mighty MaNa to reach the final, where he fell 1-3 to teammate Nerchio.

Whether Elfi can perform up to his current form in a difficult group is hard to say. The last Chinese player in his group is Jim, who has strong PvP. That's a tough hurdle for Elfi, but the recent patch has ensured that for a little while at least, PvP will be even more of a crapshoot than before. Both Jinro and IdrA are better mechanically than him, but both have weak points to their game which could be exploited. What distinguishes Protoss players of Elfi's style is their contradictory willingness to play both long defensive games, and aggressive timing games. IdrA's ZvP vulnerability has long been against the former, and Jinro's TvP weakness has frequently been the latter. Both players will likely be confident in their chances and favor reactionary styles. This puts the ball in Elfi's court; if he prepares wisely he could easily pull a large surprise and advance first. But a mixed result and uncertain promotion from the group feels more likely. His better chance will be in New York, where his group is substantially less experienced.

imbaFXO.Strelok

A few months ago, Strelok made a video in which he christened himself 'The Ambitious Terran' and essentially pledged to start destroying everyone in sight. Don't look now, but it's happening.

Ukraine's best Terran in BW, Strelok has spent most of SC2 in the shadow of the ladder beast Kas. But with his countryman in something of a slump, Strelok has surged. Qualifying for Guangzhou on the backs of Insolence and Diestar was one step, but brilliant games so far in the NASL and in several weekly cups paint a complete picture of the Ukrainian's current strength. Guangzhou is the rare tournament with some serious question as to the best Terran in the field, Strelok might prove himself it. Solid and standard in all match-ups, Strelok is a player who rarely gets beaten by someone or something weird. It's extremely difficult to imagine him losing to iaguz, and although the strength of the Chinese players is something of a wild-card, Strelok should be counted as a favorite against Way.

The most telling match will be against RevivaL, which will be decided by how carefully Strelok can manage his marine tank pushes, something of a weakness in the past. European Zergs as a bloc are significantly closer to their Korean counterparts than are Terran and Protoss, and TvZ is Strelok's best match-up, but RevivaL will provide a dangerous aggressive change of pace that will be difficult to learn on the fly. I think Strelok takes a game, but loses the series and advances second in his pool, still good enough for the playoffs.




In a sharp departure from our usual behavior, us North American fans are counting on the Koreans to dominate the foreigners at IEM Guangzhou. Though we're resigned to the fact that Europe is just better, at least we have the comfort of knowing we're not the worst Starcraft II playing region in the world. That title belongs to the non-Korean Asia Pacific.

...or so we think. If China and SEA can put up more resistance against top class Koreans than NA has been able to over three MLGs, I imagine we'll all be reduced to whimpering under our tear-soaked Greg Fields blankets (get on this product line, EG). So Koreans, for the love of god, do that thing you do best: kick some foreigner ass.

EG.IdrA

Once again, Idra heads into a big international tournament carrying the hopes of thousands of Americans on his back. He might be angry, disrespectful jerk who's quick to GG, but he's our angry disrespectful jerk, and that means our faith is unwavering.

Let's make no mistake about it: even though he's gone a while without winning a big one, Idra is still a contender. All of the mentality arguments aside, it's insanely hard to put together the string of wins required for a championship, even if you have the requisite skill. Just ask DIMAGA, who didn't win a "major" tournament until he took home Assembly Summer this year. No one doubted he was one of the best Zergs in Europe during that time, and no one should doubt Idra's skill either. I'm not saying that Idra is better than Dimaga or vice versa, but simply that Idra has shown enough high quality games on his stream and in tournaments to show that he's always gonna be in the championship mix (as much as any foreigner can be against Koreans, anyway).

As far as Guangzhou goes, Idra should be fairly pleased with his group. He's going to be favored against a mid-tier Chinese player in Jim, and should be a slight favorite against the heavily slumping Jinro as well. Elfi is the wild card here, as he has been on a sneaky hot/warm streak lately. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Idra is going to die to a Protoss deathball on Shakuras (story of his life), but pull out 2-1 in that series as well.

FnaticMSI.Rain

A few weeks ago, Korea was on the fence about keeping Rain. However, after suffering series losses to DeMusliM, Idra, Cloud and Mana in the last month alone, he was released on a waiver, and Team America was there to snatch him right up. He's a very skilled player who won't win a championship because he can't beat Koreans: he's going to feel right at home on Team America.

All kidding aside, Rain's story is very intriguing, but there's just not enough information to come to any conclusions. I think that from his recent results, we can just start to make the argument that not being in Korea has begun to hurt his skill. At the same time, it's hard ascertain how good he was when he left Korea in the first place. After a few seasons as Korea's "Cheese King," he seemed to be settling down as a more standard, mid-tier Code-S Terran. But it's unclear as to whether he really was on his way to becoming another Clide, or if he was just going to cling in Code-S for a season or two and drop out like another Maka.

DH Valencia was too few games against too few opponents to get a measure of Rain. Going up against very tough opponents in Dimaga, XiGua, and JYP, this will be a golden opportunity to come closer to discovering Rain's true nationality.




Let's be honest, TeamLiquid. The Koreans have been taking the foreigners out behind the basketball court, taking their money, and then punching them straight in the gut until they cried for their mommies. It doesn't matter if the tournament has been in America, Europe, Asia, or even Antarctica. If you hold a tournament for good money, a Korean's gonna come and add that cash to the Korean trade surplus.


Will this tournament be any different? You have the champion of NASL, Puma; the exciting, innovative, and possibly strongest PvZ player in the world, JYP; the Swedish Gorilla Terran himself, almost having played in the Korean scene for a year, Jinro; and finally, the quiet and under the radar, sniper of the team league, Revival. All four of these players have the skills and determination to win the whole tournament,.

Do you think the other scenes can stop them?

The answer is no. It's always no. The answer will be no until the infrastructures in the other scenes can compete with Korea and offer the same training. It's no surprise that top foreign teams like FXO, TeamLiquid and EG are all investing in houses in Korea. It's where the top players play and where the best foreigners come to become even better players. Saddle up, world. It's time for another tournament to end with a player from the Korean scene holding a shiny trophy in one hand and a big wad of cash in the other.

EG.PuMa

Puma goes by many aliases: Gentleman, The Guy Who Was A Practice Partner of Flash in Brood War, and most importantly of all, Ace of Evil Geniuses. From his stunning run through the first NASL where he beat MC in the best finals we've seen so far in the history of Starcraft 2, to his domination in foreign team events for his team EG, to his strong showings at the past few MLG's, Puma has made a strong case to be considered one of the best Terrans in the entire world.

Placed in Group A, he will have to take on some tough competition, most notably HasuObs, the strong Protoss from Germany, but Puma should be considered the overwhelming favorite. After a turbulent start to his career with his new team Evil Geniuses, Puma has come into his own and done very well in almost every foreign tournament he has competed in. You don't even have to check the results for foreign tournament or clan match to know that Puma stomped his opponent.

From the start of his career, the main thing that has always held Puma from reaching his full potential was his nerves. Always considered a top player in the practice room, he wasn't able to show his true talent when put in a booth and told to play in front of an audience. Luckily for the fans, these shackles seem to be ripped off with his victory at NASL and success at MLG, so I would expect nothing but his best when coming to IEM.

If I was in Puma's group, I would pray he has an off day or has a sudden flashback to his meek, nervous days. His talent, in my opinion, is head and shoulders above the rest of his group, and Puma isn't only the favorite in this group, but a favorite to take this whole tournament.

TSL_JYP

If you're a Protoss fan and have never seen JYP, do yourself a favor and please sit down to watch him this weekend. One of the new Protoss hopes in Korea, JYP has made a strong case to be called the best PvZ player in the world with his highly innovative and exciting play. He's beaten DongRaeGu in a best-of-three series with brilliant warp prism and drop storm play. Every time you see him play, you have no idea what kind of new ideas or strategies he might be thinking of.

Sadly, JYP has a weakness. Not only is it a weakness, but it is the reason why he isn't in Code S right now. He has amazing play against Zerg and is very good versus Protoss, but against Terran? He can't beat them. He has lost his last ten games against Korean Terrans. His style, which works splendidly against even the best Zergs in the world, isn't a match for even average level Terrans in Korea at the moment. Out of all the Protosses in Korea at the moment, I believe JYP might have the most overall potential to become the best in the world, but he needs to fix his abysmal record against Terran. If he could do that, I have no doubt that we will see him wrecking Code S soon enough.

In his group, he should be able to take out XiGua, the Zerg from China, and Dimaga, one of the best foreign Zergs, with his PvZ, but the real challenge will be when he has to face Rain. In terms of overall ability, JYP should have Rain beat, but he hasn't been able to buy a win vs. Terran in forever. Rain is no pushover and has shown that he can play very solid games against players who are more skilled than he is, so don't be shocked if Rain exits the group in first place or we have a tie at the top with Dimaga, JYP and Rain.

Liquid`Jinro

After almost playing and training in Korea for a full year, Jinro has had his ups and downs. He peaked with two back-to-back trips to GSL semifinals (and still the only foreigner ever to make the semifinals), and slowly dropped from Code S, to the Up-and-Downs, to Code A, and then finally, out of the GSL all together.

Really, if you look at his last two visits to Code A, the people he lost to are no pushovers. asd, the player he lost to two seasons ago, won his Code S group this season (which also had Huk in it) and is the round of sixteen. Lucky, the player who beat Jinro last season, made it all the way to the quarterfinals in this season's Code A and will be battling for a spot in the upcoming Code S season.

You can't look past how Jinro has been slumping the past few months, but you also have to remember that Jinro's mechanics and skill are still some of the best a foreigner can offer if he is well prepared. When looking at his competition, his former foreigner rival in the GSL, Idra, has also been in a slump ever since he left Korea and went back to the United States. Both Idra and Jinro have great talent and mechanics that put them ahead of a lot of the foreign opposition, but neither have been able to put it together in the past couple of months. For Jinro, the Korean metagame has caught up to him after he was ahead of the curve during his semifinals runs, and Idra's strong mechanics that he built up while living three years in Korea haven't been enough to keep him atop the foreigner scene with other players putting in seemingly more and more effort. Both players have been shown that talent and mechanics can only get you so far.

The wild card in this group is elfi, the young Protoss from Finland, who actually lost to Jinro back at Dreamhack Summer. This group will truly come down to who practiced and put the most effort into preparing for this tournament. If Idra comes in, having practiced hours upon hours a day and focusing mainly on this tournament, he should be able to come out as the top player. If he doesn't, and loses his concentration while looking ahead to MLG Orlando, then a prepared Jinro will defeat Idra just like he did back in the GSL quarterfinals months ago and get first place in the group. If neither come in ready to play their best, I can see elfi upsetting both and proudly carrying the flag for his home nation of Finland.

TSL.RevivaL

Coming in as the least known Korean among the four, Revival has actually been doing well for himself the past few months. He did well for his team TSL in the current team league, finishing with a record of 6-2, earning victories over MC and Nada. He also qualified for the most recent season of Code A where he narrowly lost in the first round to the very skilled, and widely known, Terran from MvP, sC.

Revival really likes his Banelings and can be hyper aggressive if need be in situations. Looking at his group, I would say that he is going to be able to at least get second in his group. The real challenge will be going up against the fearsome Ukrainian Terran Strelok. Strelok's TvZ is monstrous, the best match-up he plays, while Revival has shown lately that his ZvT is nothing to look down upon either. He played brilliant games against StC and Nada when he faced both in the GSTL, and it really feels like Revival has only been getting better and better each time he steps inside the booth to play a game.

If Revival can calm his nerves playing in his first foreign event and play like he has in the GSTL against other top Terrans in Korea, I would not be shocked if he won the group, or even goes on to take the entire tournament with his blossoming skill. It also wouldn't shock me if he somehow ended up third in his group and got knocked out right away. He's a very unpredictable player and you never know what kind of game he will show you. He might play flawlessly and make you believe that he could be a top Zerg one day, or he can make you pull out your hair and wonder why he is playing in the GSL at his skill level.

Will we see the Good Revival or Bad Revival in China? For the fans of the foreigners, I hope you're crossing your fingers that the Bad Revival shows up on the day of the tournament.


Many apologies to SEA fans. Our SEA writer was unable to finish his segment before deadline for personal reasons.





WaxAngel took "Idra will lose to a Protoss deathball on Shakuras" at 1-30 odds.
Tree.Hugger bet against "Dimaga will place highest of all non-Korean invites" at 4-1 odds.
WaxAngel took "The final will be between two Koreans" at 5-2 odds.
Tree.Hugger took "Two or more Chinese players will advance from their groups" at 1-130 odds.