The GSTL opens with a highly anticipated match between last season's... last place finishers. Though FXO was picked by most to be just a mid-tier team in the last GSTL, SlayerS disappointed everyone who had seen them win GSTL3 by going from champs to chumps in the span of an off-season. Despite their poor previous performances, both teams have grown stronger since the last GSTL and are strong contenders to win it all.

With Coca still on probation, SlayerS remains a heavily Terran reliant team, presenting some interesting advantages and disadvantages against FXO. FXO's ace Terran player Gumiho is rather poor at his mirror match-up, and he'll have a tough time against SlayerS' many Code S class Terran players. If SlayerS can nullify Gumiho by preventing him from playing, or forcing him to play a TvT, then they will have a big advantage. On the other hand, Leenock is a Terran killer supreme, leaving SlayerS with only a few cards to play against him. It's really up to Puzzle to do his job and take advantage of Leenock's weak ZvP, or else Leenock will just plough through everyone and force MMA into action.

The proceedings could easily be complicated by any number of non-ace players on either side. Lucky (spanked the entire SlayerS Terran roster at IPL3), Oz (looks like a PvT MASTER at times), Ganzi (Code S semi-finalist), Clide (all-kill vs MVP) and Taeja (all-kill vs ZeNEX) are all players who can go on incredible runs.

Also, this being the all-kill format, the performance of ace players is hugely important – and both teams have ridiculous ace cards to play. If we posit that MMA is as good, if not better than DongRaeGu, then it means he should stop being just a luxury closer for SlayerS and evolve into a guy who wipes other teams single-handedly. From what we've seen from Leenock, he should be on that level as well. These two have the power to make the GSTL cease to be a team competition and an individual one instead, but will they use it?

Prediction: Slayer 5 – 4 FXO




ZeNEX is a team that's visibly falling apart – or at least that's how it looks from the outside. In fact, we want to give them enormous credit for simply existing and making this ten team GSTL possible after losing so many key players. It's hard to even tell who their best player is now. We thought Line (aka Suhosin) was pretty good after his Super Tournament run, but he hasn't been seen in the GSL in a long time. Kyrix was in Code S for quite a while, but everyone could see he was on his way out with the new, tougher format. Life has done alright in online tournaments, but we've never seen him play in the GomTV studio before. I'm not going to completely write them off yet, however. Since we haven't seen much of them, there's still the tiny, off-chance that they are actually really good, and are ready to shock the world. I'll cling to that small possibility to keep me interested during this match.

oGs has also dropped a few key players as well, but somehow they're actually better than they were last season. HerO and Zenio switched to oGs's partner team in Liquid, and are thus still available to play. Though MC left the team in January, he actually contributed little to nothing to oGs during the last GSTL which was played during his slump. On top of that, HerO and TheStC have grown as players while ForGG is looking like a solid acquisition.

Obviously, oGs would rather have kept the revitalized MC, and having him right now would make them a stronger team. But if you strictly compare the rosters from the 2011 GSTL and 2012 GSTL at their skill levels at the time, you have to give the 2012 oGs team the upper hand.

In any case, oGs is at worst a mid-low tier team, which is still far better off than ZeNEX, a miracle of modern eSports medicine. ZeNEX could put up a decent fight, but don't expect them to win.

Prediction: oGs 5 – 3 ZeNEX

Metropolis

No, it’s not that Blizzard map from the ladder. Metropolis, a creation of GSL’s LSPrime, is clearly designed to encourage the 5 base vs 5 base management game, with every spawn location expanding away from the opponent. There are only ground paths leading to each player’s side of the map, both of which involve attacking up a wide ramp. Expect long, drawn out games, especially in TvT. It’s not a completely turtle-favored map though. The bases starting at the top, middle, left, and right edges of the map rather than the four corners naturally shortens the rush distances. A side of effect of the expansion locations is that the main bases are especially vulnerable to drop harassment from the middle of the map. Elevator tactics are also encouraged. In addition, there is a second entrance to the natural expansion which players can exploit, but at the cost of putting their army out of position to deny counter attacks.

Of interest are additional bases for each player located in the middle of the map and on islands. I do not foresee them turning games into 7 base vs 7 base stalemates due to their awkward locations. Rather, they seem to serve as incentive for players to secure dominance over both the air and the middle of the map.

Overall, Metropolis looks like a map built for long macro games, yet also allows for non-all-in aggression in the mid game through harassment of the main bases. This is a good combination of map traits for producing entertaining games. Interestingly enough, initial GSL games on Metropolis have been relatively short, with players opting for various aggressive tactics. Perhaps it has something to do with players anticipating greedy play and trying to take advantage of it? It will be interesting to see how this map plays out in the long run.

Entombed Valley

Entombed Valley is a Blizzard map, but you wouldn’t know it if you were just looking for gold bases and expansions blocked by destructible rocks. This map follows the recent theme of “get Protoss to take more than 2 bases”, but unlike other maps with an easy third, the fourth base isn’t particularly difficult to defend either. Unlike Metropolis, the main base here is practically invulnerable to mid game harassment, as air units will have to fly by anti-air at either the natural or the third base to get there. This should make both mutalisks and drop harass more easily defendable. As such, the games here should be mostly about ground army positioning and how well players use the abundant resources in the late game. Oh, and they’ll also be about who has the better deathball.

On a side note, we may finally start to see longer PvP games as it is difficult for blink stalkers to threaten the main base. The downside of this is the return of colossus wars, so hopefully someone will find a more entertaining way to play the matchup.

ESV Cloud Kingdom

Cloud Kingdom, by Superouman of Testbug fame, is perhaps the most hyped map in the pool, being the winner of the TL Map Contest as well as the first map from the foreign community to be used in GSL. It is the only new 2 player map to be added this season. With players always knowing their opponent’s spawn location at the beginning of the game, there are more possibilities for planned, map-specific cheese than on 3 or 4 player maps. I’m expecting to be wowed by creative proxy building locations at least a few times in this tournament.

The next noticeable feature of the map is that the third base isn’t quite as easily defendable as we might be used to by now. We should expect to see plenty of 2 base aggression on this map, but long games can be played as well. 1 base all-ins (without proxy buildings), on the other hand, fall flat because unless you’re willing to attack up a ramp, the rush distance is incredibly long. Destructible rocks blocking part of the wide ramp near the natural expansion are reminiscent of Daybreak, one of the best maps for producing entertaining games.

There are many choke points around the map to help Terran and Protoss, yet also numerous attack paths to give Zerg opportunities to flank and counter attack. This architecture makes it easy to defend against a ball of units in a single control group, but rewards players who have the skill to split their army to attack from multiple angles. As a result, more so than any other map, Cloud Kingdom looks to be a map that takes more skill to play the more bases are taken.