Bboong2 left a lasting impression on me by handing Nestea his first loss in a ZvZ series in what seemed like forever during the second AoL tournament, but he hasn't really had a chance to show whether that was a fluke or a sign of some serious ZvZ skill. A match against GSL stalwart Zenio should be a suitable proving ground.

Zenio had a bit of a reputation in the past as a very good ZvZ player, but as of late he's looked somewhat average. While he's won his last three GSL ZvZs (2 – 0 vs Yugioh, 1 – 0 vs Losira), he's fared poorly in some other competitions. He went out to July in the FXO invitational, and to Lucky in the MLG Korean qualifier. Neither of those players are exactly famous for their ZvZ prowess, so it casts some uncertainty on Zenio's ability.

Overall, it's a duel that's pretty hard to predict, given Bboong2's lack of recent ZvZ games and the nature of the match-up as well – if you buy into the "ZvZ is a coinflip" stuff. I'll go with Zenio here; his penchant for staying in Code S the only real trend for either player going into this match.

Prediction: Zenio 2 – 1 Bboongbboong




Remember when Inca rode to a GSL finals on the back of great PvP and PvT, despite the fact that he was 0 - 4 in PvZ? You know, back in GSL May, where Inca lost 0 - 4 to Nestea, leaving that loss as the last image for Protoss players GSL finals? Ah, I'm sorry I made you recall that dark, bygone age.

Anyway, Protoss fell a long way after that final, but the new dawn has finally come, and there are enough good Protosses making it far enough in the GSL that having good PvP is actually necessary. With people starting to play more and more PvP in Korea again, we're starting to see who managed to hone their skills during the dark ages, and who's fallen behind.

It doesn't look so great for Inca, at least off the small number of games lately. He lost to Protoss rising stars Parting and Seed in the recent MLG Korea qualifiers, and got knocked out of the tournament. A few weeks before that, he lost to Oz in Code S, setting him up to fall out of that tournament as well. What happened to the player who was on a nine game PvP streak going into the GSL May finals?

Squirtle's not that notable in PvP either, and he hasn't even played that many PvP games lately. He did, however, manage to defeat Tassadar 4 - 1 in the finals of the ESV Korean tournament back in October, earning a Code A spot in the process. It could be splitting hairs, but if I had to choose between the guys who last won significant PvP series in May and October,I think I'll take the guy who won earlier.

Prediction: Inca 1 – 2 Squirtle




When Alicia took on asd, there were question marks on how much Alicia had improved in the past few months. He looked like he had stagnated after the Super Tournament, relying too much on two-base timing attacks. However, he showed some more variety in his play against FXOasd, and took the series in three games. The games weren't the prettiest – especially in the second set when the climax included nine Battlecruisers against Alicia's Protoss death ball backed up by a 10,000 mineral bank – but the Slayers Protoss was good enough to get it done in the end.

Now, against sC, he will have to up his game if he wants to try to get back into Code S directly. In what can only be called bad luck for a player who has already had a lot of bad luck thrust upon him in the past few months, sC was able to beat JYP in the first round of Code S, but fell to his two teammates, Genius and DongRaeGu, who are now both in the semifinals. He has the talent to be one of the best Terrans in the GSL, but due to health problems and unlucky match-ups, he hasn't been deep in a GSL tournament since May, where he was barely beat by Nestea in the semifinals.

Both players have great micro and can hit timing attacks with the best of them, but if you want a favorite going into the series, you would have to give it to sC. His only two losses in Code S were against arguably the two hottest players in the GSL right now and he will be a step up in competition compared to asd.

Prediction: sC 2 – 0 Alicia




YuGiOh is the undisputed King of Code A, playing in all but one of the Code A seasons in GSL history. He improved his play enough recently to take a few shots at Code S, but he ended up dropping out without leaving much of an impact. Actually, he did leave a minor impact with his series against Gumiho, which was widely panned as the worst Code S series in months. That wasn't really an indicator of YuGiOh's skill, to be honest. It was an aberration, where both players just managed to play extremely poorly for one reason or another.

Anyway, YuGiOh is still a lonely monarch sighing on his throne, who still longs for something more despite ruling over a vast kingdom. He's seen Gumiho go from a player that was laughed at during the group selections to being a total boss in the span of one tournament. Those are the kind of dreams YuGiOh has.

In the other corner, we have Virus. I don't really know what to say when I talk about this player. He's not awful, can play very solid games, and once upon a time almost eliminated Nestea from Code S – but he doesn't have a single match-up that he is especially strong at, being 50% or below in every category. Usually when you look at a player, they usually have one match-up that's a bit better than the rest, but Virus is just...vanilla. He's been able to hang in GSL for a long time now, bouncing between Code S and A, reminding me a lot of the old GSL survivor, Ensnare, who refused to die until they fundamentally changed the way the tournament worked. He's shown tiny glimpses of brilliance in a few of his Code S games (check out his match against SuperNoVa), but he will need to play like that all the time if he wants to stick around in even Code A for much longer.

Prediction: YuGiOh 2 – 1 Virus




It's been said to death now, but Keen is truly an inconsistent player. At times, especially in online tournaments, Keen looks like a Code S champion-caliber player. Then, at other times – especially against Nada – he looks like a Code A player who got lucky to get into Code S. In his past eight games in Code A, Keen is undefeated, smashing through everyone in his way and has made quick work of the four players he's been put up against. He has the talent to be at least a quarter-final player in Code S, but something is just not clicking for him in the world's most prestigious Starcraft II tournament.

You could say we've seen two different personalities of Keen in the last year. When he first debuted, Keen, besides MC, was one of the most charismatic players in the GSL, doing ceremonies after every single victory and even getting as far as the quarterfinals of Code S August. Now, Keen has dyed his hair dark black, doesn't perform ceremonies any more – and after going through numerous up-and-downs – shows more negative emotion than positive inside the booth, looking absolutely crushed mentally when he loses a close game.

Ace, his opponent, is a solid Protoss who showed skill by beating Luvsic in the first round. But if the Commander plays at his highest level, then he should be able to win comfortably. Keen might even use some of his patented TvP mech play, using hellion timing attacks backed up by a small amount of bio. Protoss players have had trouble dealing with this unorthodox style so far, and Ace is not the most likely candidate to figure it out.

Prediction: Keen 2 – 0 Ace




Nothing of note seemed to have happened to Killer during his tournament absence in the last month or two. He arrived at Code A without a team, and got back to business by dispatching XiGua without showing any real signs of rust. He was Killer as usual, a bit lacking on the finesse side (for a progamer), but still finding ways to win through good utilization of the deathball.

Against another Terran or Zerg opponent, I would have assumed he would win the match – perhaps not easily – but nonetheless find a way to slug his way back into Code S. However, he's going up against a Protoss opponent this round, and that's the match-up that's always been the problem for Killer. Whether it was HuK, San, Attero or Parting, his brothers from Aiur have frequently been the road block.

Now, we haven't seen much of Brown's PvP so far, but he beat Lure previously this tournament. I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that's already enough to convince me that he'll probably beat Killer in this match. Well, Killer will always have the Up/Downs, and I expect to see him in Code S next season barring a stupidly hard group.

Prediction: Brown 2 – 0 Killer




For a guy who's mostly coasting through his Starcraft II career, Nada has managed to do pretty well. Though he's never been a real title threat, he's always found a way to stay within the bounds of Code S (eight straight seasons) and secure the $1,300+ that comes with it. Now, we could say that Nada looked poor and uninspired this season, and going up against a hungry, rising player in Creator is a real threat to his Code S streak. Though Genius and Parting hogged the spotlight in 2012, Creator has been on the radar as a rising Protoss prospect since Prime's deep GSTL run last year. Creator's been a been a workhorse for Prime in their various team tournaments, and he put in an impressive performance in the first round of Code A by taking down Polt.

However, we could have said that Nada was on his way out last season, when he lost in the RO32 as last place in his group, and was quickly sent to the up-down matches by FXO's Lucky. Yet, when he was facing elimination from Code S, he put in an impressive performance and made it through his Up/Down group in first place, with a 3 – 1 record. It goes to show that the most talented player of all time is always capable of stepping up his performances when he needs it. While it's a shame that 11 years of esports mileage means that he's only going to be at top speed infrequently, it's good to know that the fifth gear is still there.

With the records clearly showing that Creator has been a better player than Nada in the past few months, this match-up is pretty much an an issue of whether or not we believe that "best of all time" mystique will come into play. While that's definitely a possibility, I think that Nada magic will only activate once we get into the Up/Down matches. Even last season, Nada showed a pretty tepid performance in the Code A RO32, only to crank it up for the Up/Downs. Now's not the time for Nada, so Creator will get his deserved spot in the RO24.

Prediction: Creator 2 – 0 Nada




What did you do when you were 14-years-old? Last week, Maru eliminated one of the last foreigner hopes Morrow from the GSL, watched his team beat HoSeo in the GSTL, and then all-killed StarTale in a Bo11 KSL series, with wins over Sound, Curious, and Bomber. The youngest player in the GSL has a lot of eyes on him after his impressive performance in the first round of Code A and his all-kill in the KSL, and he now faces former Code S semifinalist Happy as he tries continue his dream of becoming the youngest Code S player in history.

Compared to Maru, Happy might be going the other way on the momentum scale. After getting to the semifinals back in October, he's been in a rut of sorts. He has been eliminated early in Code S since then and hasn't been able to make a deep run, unable to live up to expectations after showing beautiful mech play in his early seasons. When looking at his stats, it's easy to tell what the problem is. Looking at his TvZ stats, you can make an argument that Happy might be one of he best specific match-up players in the world, holding an outstanding 18 – 2 record against the Swarm. However, he has a sub 55% win rate in the two other match-ups, and he's even lost his last seven TvT games.

Unfortunately, Maru is not a Zerg and Happy is going to have to play his worst match-up. Happy likes to go for longer, drawn out games in TvT, trying to use his mech style to slowly overpower his opponent, ala his teammate MVP, but it hasn't been working lately. Both Alive and MarineKing ran over him in his recent appearance in Code S. From the games I've seen, Maru prefers to go more bio or tank-marine type builds, resulting in shorter games. He can also be a cheesy player, throwing in all-in builds here and there, liking to end games quickly.

Either the Golden Boy of Prime will continue his ascension, or we will see Happy get back on track, ending his TvT losing streak and proving he deserved the nickname MiniVP.

Prediction: Maru 2 – 1 Happy