Special section: Cop-outs

Looking ahead to a match, sometimes you'll find that a player has a very small body of work, hasn't played the relevant match-up in a long time, or has some other extenuating circumstances around him that make predicting the result very difficult. And that's in Code S!

This week's Code A matches feature a few players who we know very little about, save maybe some games in the ESV, EWS, or KSL formats, and some rumors you might have heard here and there about their play. Players like DongRaeGu and TaeJa have come out of these unknown ranks, but so have players who are not quite TheBestfOu. Thus, we've decided to take the low road, and cop out of making any predictions for these following match-ups.


oGs.InCa vs oGs.Lure

Lure's an almost totally unknown newcomer, Inca's one of the most unpredictable players in the world, weird team-kill mind games are in play, AND it's a PvP? Prediction: Heads


SlayerS_YuGiOh vs MvPVampire

The King of Code A has shown slow but steady improvement over the last few seasons, evolving from perennial Code A player to someone who can grasp for the bottom rung of the Code S ladder. With his Code S counterpart, Virus, having evolved to become even more dangerous this season, it will be interesting to see if Yugioh can step up as well. However, the mere prospect of a Heart vs Vampire match-up in the Up/Downs forces me to say the Mvp rookie has a chance.


FXOGuMiho vs IMdreamertt

Dreamertt is IM's fourth string Terran, behind Mvp, Yoda, and Happy. On the other hand, Gumiho beat Mvp twice last season, and also beat Nada, Supernova, Select, and ThorZaIN in consecutive series in the IPL ToC. Actually, I think we'll predict this one.

Prediction: Gumiho 2 – 0 Dreamertt


SlayerS_Brown vs FXOTree

The only thing more disappointing than Brown's rapid fall from glory is the fact that this match just barely managed to miss 4/20 by a few days, robbing us of various Tree jokes.

Okay, now that's out of the way, here are our regular previews and predictions.

SlayerS_Alicia vs ST_Bomber

Bomber should count his lucky stars. Not because he drew an unimpressive PvT player in Alicia as his first round opponent, or because he fell into a fairly decent bracket to get back into Code S, but because the massive Parting/MKP GSTL disconnect controversy overshadowed the fact that he committed an absolutely humiliating mistake in the following game against MKP, costing his team the championship.

For those who didn't see it: Bomber played insanely well against MKP's 1/1/1 to hold his own 1-rax FE and take a lead, but totally blew it with a complete misread of the situation, a terrible drop, and a manner mule dance. Dancing your manner mule during a horrible, unit donation drop that ends up blowing the game against the enemy team's best player (one that went on to beat the last two guys on your team), and as a result losing your team a hugely important championship? Congratulations, Bomber, 'most humiliating game' now belongs to you. NaNiwa was right, Startale players are good teammates.

Sigh, he's still insanely good though.

Prediction: Bomber 2 – 0 Alicia.


FXOLucky vs oGs.Vines

While potential packed newcomers tend to get the lion's share of attention, you can't forget that a team can improve in more ways than one. Despite losing MC and Zenio, oGs has managed to stay afloat due to its late blooming veterans. SuperNoVa has gradually upped his game for over a year, TheStC has finally been able to translate his online notoriety into getting results in the Mokdong studio, and now VINES will look to make an impact as well. He's put in some good performances for oGs in various team leagues, with a four-kill over SlayerS in the GSTL being by far the most impressive. Team league performances are usually only a so-so estimator of individual league skill, but it helps differentiate players who can be quickly written off, from those who can be dangerous when they're on their game.

VINES faces a tough first round test in Lucky, a very skilled player who was shamefully maligned by NaNiwa haters as a random Code A player to exaggerate the negative implications of his 4 – 0 record against the Swede. Hopefully, some Code S appearances will have rectified that situation. The stats show that Lucky is a very strong ZvP player, and he has a knack for goading his opponents into unwise base-trades and winning the elimination race. However, that style of play is something Protoss players have gotten better at dealing with in recent months, so it will be interesting to see how Lucky chooses to play the match-up tonight.

Prediction: Lucky 2 – 0 Vines


MvPSniper vs. ZeNexAvenge

Both mostly unknown names in the scheme of things in the GSL, these two will try to become the new big thing in Code A by gaining the most vital first round victory in Code A. With their lives on the line, a loss from either of them would put them down all the way back into Code B and it would be a hard road back through the qualifiers to get back into the GSL.

Sniper had a somewhat successful tournament last season by eliminating Clide from the GSL and then taking out Sen, but fell in the final round to an injured MVP. In the Up and Downs, he was able to impressively beat Ganzi and Ace, but wasn't able to make his first Code S appearance. Avenge had a very similar season as Sniper, winning his first two series, but not being able to take down the PvP master Oz in the final round. In his Up and Down group, he had a chance in the final game of the night to be the first ZeNex player in what seems like forever to make it into Code S, but fell to B4 in a back-and-forth game that could have went either way.

There really is no favorite in this match, but I like Sniper better by a hair.

Prediction: Sniper 2 – 1 Avenge


GhostKingPrime vs. coL.NaDa

Has the time finally come? Nada has been a staple through the first year and a half of the GSL, but now, after an awful showing in Code S where he got beaten down by MMA and Leenock, could this finally be the time where the Genius Terran says his goodbye? With the time ticking down until his mandatory service in the Korean army and a bad performance in Code S this season, Nada will not be happy with his first round draw.

The Progamer Formely Known as Byun, now known as GhostKing, hasn't been in the GSL in a while due to a slump correlating with a suspension for his Korean Weekly scandal along with Coca, but now is back to try and get back into Code S. All the way back in the July season of GSL, GhostKing was one of the best Terrans in the world. He was able to defeat MVP, Nada, and Bomber, all known at the time for their amazing TvT, and make it to the semifinals of the season before being defeated by Losira. After that, he wasn't able to get back to the semifinals and finally got the unlucky task of drawing Oz in the first round of Code A in August, but now has a shot at redemption.

Some hope for Nada fans is that he was able to defeat GhostKing's teammate and now Ro16 player Maru in Code A, but if GhostKing can play the same dominating TvT style he did a few months ago, it's going to be an amazingly hard task to take him out. Back before Alive took the scene by storm with his dominating mech style that mirrored MVP, GhostKing was doing the same tactics and actually beating MVP at his own game. Nada was able to take down Creator and Maru last season in Code A, but Byun could be the Prime player that finally takes him out.

Prediction: GhostKing 2 – 1 Nada