by Waxangel


For the second day, IEM Sao Paolo went mostly as expected, at least in the case of players who topped the groups. Violet and Ret came through with flying colors, going 3 – 0 in their groups. However, the battles for second place were more heated, as it was hard to tell who was the clear favorite in either group. In the end, it was Real who triumphed over biGs in group C, while Slivko advanced over Snute in Group D.

The HomeStory continues

Following their good performances at their last ESL event in HomeStory Cup4, Real and Violet were able to make it through group C and reach the next round at IEM Sao Paulo as well. The two Koreans abroad crushed the other players in their group, with both players going 4 – 0 against biGs and Potiguar.

It came down to the match between the two to decide first and second place – though the match itself was played early in the day. Real went up 1 – 0 after winning a prolonged battle on Antiga Shipyard, but Violet rallied back to take the series 2 – 1 and win his group.

Saving face

Unfortunately for Brazil, its players were unable to replicate the energy of its raucous crowd. Tunico, Potiguar, and DakkoN went a combined 0 – 9 in set, and 2 – 18 in map scores.

However, Potiguar had a few good showings that provided a silver lining. He managed to take a game off biGs with a well timed, well executed stalker and void ray timing attack. In the next two games, he took biGs on in long macro games where he was able to match his more famous counterpart blow for blow for large portions of the game. However, biGs proved to be a superior player once the game reached the late game phase and he acquired hive tech, and he overwhelmed Potiguar in the end.

ZvZ heaven (or hell)

Over 20,000 viewers tuned in to watch fifteen consecutive Zerg vs Zerg matches – widely considered to be one of the least popular match ups – in what might be considered proof of their devotion to Starcraft II. For a day, the match-up's reputation for volatility seemed to be a misgiving. Liquid`Ret, considered to be the best in the group, went 6 – 1 on map scores, while the prohibitive underdog DakkoN was unable to cause any upsets.

by tree.hugger and Waxangel

oGsSuperNoVa vs RoX.KISsLivko

Though I would have just said "SuperNoVa 3 – 0" and walked away a few days ago, SuperNoVa's series against KiLLeR made me think again. SuperNoVa tried to play the first two games battles of sheer strength, and KiLLeR looked completely up to the task of beating SuperNoVa in that kind of macro game. After changing his strategy to be more micro and multi-task intensive, SuperNoVa was able to take game three rather easily, but... the fact that he was forced to adjust does go against the entire "unstoppable Korean juggernaut" image I'd conjured up for him before. Well, I think I can be forgiven for that – I just couldn't stop thinking about some games where SuperNoVa had stomped DRG and Leenock in macro-wars. Slivko can play a pretty good ling-festor style, but I don't think he's up to the challenge of SuperNoVa just yet.

My personal prediction here is still 3 – 0, but just a less emphatic one. Maybe before, it was 3 – 0.

Now it's more of a Supernova 3 – 0 Slivko, if that makes any sense.


TypeReaL vs Mill.Feast

It's been an astounding month for Mill.Feast. Soon after being picked up by Millenium, as an almost complete unknown, he traveled to Kiev and braved a group with DIMAGA and HerO to advance into the bracket, where he took a game off of MMA. That series exposed some flaws in his play, but nonetheless, against MMA, simply being in that position is an indication of skill enough. In São Paulo, he finds himself with a much more manageable first round opponent in TypeReaL. (Should he make it to the semis... the difficulty will ramp up quickly). The Korean Protoss has been solid ever since his breakout at HomeStory, and he looked very comfortable in thwarting challenges from biGs and Potiguar in the group stages. Feast and biGs may be around the same level online, but their relative degrees of success in LANs speaks volumes, and so you can expect this match to be hotly contested.

As for a favorite, your guess is as good as mine. Feast has had higher peaks; his defeat of HerO in Kiev was the best that either of these two has done recently. But ReaL is more experienced in this type of position, and against Potiguar, his PvP was immaculate. This might be one of those matches that comes down to who had the better breakfast in the morning, or which side of the bed either player slept on. Based on history, style, and their form this tournament, it's impossible to separate them, and it'll be sad to see one of these guys fall out. I'll say ReaL 3 - 2 Feast.


EG.DeMusliM vs Empire.viOLet

EGDeMusliM managed to get through his group, which has bought him some time, but he didn't look particularly dominant in doing it, and that means that the perennial question "How good is DeMusliM when the games matter?" remains unanswered. He hasn't looked brilliant enough to take down Empire.viOlet though, who has hit his stride in the past few months. Although viOlet's ZvT was far and away his biggest liability in Korea, it has gotten much more reliable (relatively or objectively, I won't try to judge) since he has entered the foreign scene. And moreover, DeMusliM has usually looked the most uneasy in TvZ, despite his opening round sweep of the match-up. viOlet is a step above what DeMusliM faced on Wednesday, and he'll need to step up his game, or face another disappointing tournament result.

That all means viOlet is the clear favorite here, but that DeMusliM is talented enough to make it work. And since viOlet has not played ZvT in the tournament so far, while DeMusliM has, there might be a bit of a warming-up period for the Korean, during which the Brit could take advantage and get an early lead. I'm expecting a viOlet win, but when you have a seasoned professional like DeMusliM, you can never count the upset out. The prediction? viOlet 3 - 1


Liquid`Ret vs aTn.DarKFoRcE

These days, I'm getting the impression that the luck factor in ZvZ might be a bit overstated. Sure, there's luck, but I'm not sure if it's anything worse than going triple nexus and dying to a single banshee. Over a five game series, I think the better player will win most of the time.

With that in mind, Ret should be the slight favorite going into this match. Ret's ZvZ has been vastly improved since the old days where it seemed like his big liability – or least the results say so. His dismantling of Nerchio at DreamHack Winter came as a surprise to many viewers, and the quality of his play there made it almost look like a declaration that he had brought all of his match-ups to a very high level. While Ret's ZvZ is not quite on his 'why don't you give Code A another shot' level like his ZvT, it should still be slightly better than what DarkForce will bring to the table. DarkForce's strength is in getting to hive and mangling people with his management at that phase of the game, and that's usually not terribly relevant in the world of ZvZ. Let's go with Ret 3 - 2 DarkForce.

Replays can be downloaded at ESL World.

Spoilers ahead!

Sadly, today's games weren't as interesting as yesteday's. That might have something to do with the fact that over half of them were Zerg vs Zerg, although that's just my personal opinion. Who knows? Maybe Ret, Slivko, Snute, and DakkoN are just objectivlye more boring players than the guys who played on day one.


Obligatory Shakuras Plateau map-split game: biGs vs Potiguar, Game 3

Potiguar looked pretty good in this game, using some cute DT timing to catch biGs off guard, and using warp prisms to harass biGs' expansions. However, he would later allow his mothership to be neural parasited, which pretty much undid all the good he had done all game.


Korean on Korean crime game: Real vs Violet, Game 1

A long game with some action, but also a lot of posturing in the middle while being too risk-averse to actually go for it and fight. Hey, I did say that day one was more interesting.


Brazil! game: bigs vs Potiguar, Game 1

It was a two base timing attack in PvZ. Whatever, I'll take it - the hosts deserve to win at least one decent game.


Obligatory ZvZ game: Ret vs Slivko, Game 1

To its credit, this game didn't end instantly.