Foreigners vs Koreans, Part II

The second winners round featured something of a theme. In three of the four matches, a predominantly foreign team took on a Korean team. In each of those matches, by the way, the foreign team lost. But despair not (so much), as Acer and FXO.CIS put together stoic performances, both doing solidly but not quite defeating their GSTL opposition. The biggest disappointment came at the week's end, however, as Empire bit the dust hard against SlayerS, it what seemed the best chance for a foreign pick-up. This week, the cycle begins anew, as EG and Quantic take on Korean opposition in MvP and Startale. But there's also a fun wrinkle; two KR vs KR matches as well, with the very unknown dtG facing off against LG-IM, and FXO battling against TSL. So while the inter-scene match-ups will carry the banner, there's plenty of fun Korean vs Korean action as well! This ought to be both the highest level and most variable week in the IPL TAC yet!

Week Four (Winners Round 2) Review

By tree.hugger

Mousesports is definitely not the same team without ThorZaIN, but going into this match they still had reason for hope; HeRoMaRinE has been good recently, if not a replacement for their former ace; certainly a fine player to represent Mouz. Their solid core of MorroW, MaNa, and HasuObs is going strong. biGs has been promising as their ace. But none of that mattered in this match, as Sheth romped to an early three kill. When Mousesports finally committed MorroW, presumably their ace, the Swede was able to take the win, but was promptly sniped by an in-form HayprO. biGs came on for the save, but was unable to bring it back, and Liquid came away with a convincing 5-1 win. As an added bonus Liquid completed the victory with no Korean help, silencing the foreign-only fans, at least for a day.

For Mousesports, who came into this tournament looking like a threat, losing here was the latest blow, a by-product of losing their teamleague rock. Seeded as one of the top eight teams partially based on ThorZaIN's performance, Mouz looks in deep trouble now. They'll play Acer next, a team that looked significantly more impressive in the Round of 16. In struggling with Sheth and HayprO, things don't bode well for their battle against Nerchio and Bly. But there's one thing in Mousesports' favor, Acer will have less depth than Liquid; no need to fear HerO or TaeJa.

Meanwhile, Liquid has steamrolled the first two rounds, beating Dignitas and Mousesports by a combined 10-1 score. All of their players have been zergs, and not having to use their aces HerO and TaeJa, or even Ret and TLO has been a strong statement. Still, due to being the #9 seed, Liquid has been blessed with fair "easy" match-ups so far. Not so next round, where they face defending champs Prime. Liquid lost 4-5 to Prime in the previous IPL TAC, and Acer showed a way forward this week as well. But Prime still hasn't shown they can be beat. Liquid will certainly need to dig deeper than they did in this match to come away with the win.




This was supposed to be the one stomp, the match that wouldn't be worth watching. Maybe a Nerchio spree could keep it close, but a competitive, back and forth series with good games being shown by all was certainly not what anyone was expecting. But instead, Acer delivered, with Bly playing a clever all-in against MKP and then going on a ZvZ tear before being stopped by the mysterious Salmosa. You could be forgiven for thinking Prime wasn't taken the series so seriously, but with Salmosa eliminated by Nerchio, they sent their second ace, Creator, and he saved the day, surviving Nerchio, elfiPvP (who was still on Acer when this series was played, but has since left) and DarkHydra.

Whew.

It was a seriously close affair for Prime, who surely didn't expect to be threatened at all by Acer's ragtag line-up. But when the chips were down, they committed their ace, and barely survived. While most teams we'd take this result as a sign of weakness, with Prime, who won every nearly match 5-4 last season, it was par for the course. They may look hard pressed, but eventually they'll win and move on.

For Acer, it was a performance to be proud of, but nothing more. They still drop down to the losers bracket to face Mousesports, who on paper should still be the favorites. Acer will need to prove themselves again. But still, with Nerchio and Bly in the line-up, despite losing elfi, Acer has some serious streak potential. If they can put together a run like they did in this match, they could be considered the surprise of the tournament.




FXO.CIS scored the first Korean kill of the tournament, taking out coL. But NSHoSeo was always another story, and the Eastern European team put in a strong but ultimately futile performance against the last IPL TAC runners up. Elbegast was the big star, taking an opening victory over infestor hero Freaky, than took out Tassadar in a PvP. But after Sting and LoWeLy traded blows, NSHoSeo got semi-serious, sent out San their first real top line player, and he cleaned up. FXO's heavy hitters, especially Strelok who carried FXO during the qualifiers, and BRAT.OK, traditionally their ace, were effective against coL. but couldn't save the day against San.

For FXO.CIS, it was a confidence building performance, but not enough to go on. But against their regional rivals Empire, FXO.CIS should be pleased at their ability to compete on the Korean level, something that Empire both brings to the table, theoretically, but also died horribly against. (See below). In these respects, FXO.CIS is in a similar boat as Acer, with a strong performance even in a loss, up against an opponent who got beaten badly. It'll be interesting to see if that will lead to wins for both insurgents in the losers bracket.

On the other foot, NSHoSeo dropped three, but never had to use Jjakji, so we'll say they weren't troubled all too much. After a great run through the losers bracket last season, however, NSHoSeo will probably hope to relieve some stress and go farther in winners. This was their easy match. Next comes SlayerS, an opponent on a whole other order of magnitude. Bet we'll see Jjakji in that one.




In total contrast to the Acer-Prime match, this was supposed to be a slugfest between one of the elite foreign run teams against an elite Korean one. Instead, the roles reversed, and Empire looked like a minnow against just two protoss from SlayerS. Puzzle is good and powerful and well known, but losing three to Crank was a bit sad, especially viOlet, whose recent form has been way better than this, and Happy, who saw an all-in coming and completely failed to defend it. On paper, Empire looks great; three top terrans, viOlet, ViNES and the up and comer in TheMista. But in reality, they couldn't muster a challenge here. Back to the drawing board.

SlayerS see, SlayerS conquer. Also, protoss are apparently a strength of SlayerS and a weakness of Empire. Against NSHoSeo, a team with a deep protoss line-up, SlayerS should be well-equipped with Puzzle and Crank leading the charge.

For Empire, the consequences are much more. Adding ViNES was a great move, but now it needs to pay off. But the Korean got no help from his teammates. Beastyqt could've been a good addition; his TvP seems improved, but overall TheMista was a solid starter pick, and PvP is a good match-up for Empire to draw there. They just didn't execute. Empire looks like one of the tournament's more scary teams on paper, but with performances like this one, it won't look like that much longer. Against the very solid FXO.CIS next round, Empire needs to bring something special; both teams know each other well, but FXO.CIS has a sure edge in confidence.

Week Five (Winners Round 2) Preview

By NrGmonk

MVP and EG are two teams who couldn't have come from more different origins. MVP was a fledgling Korean team who came from very humble origins, and when they first appeared on the scene, no one gave them much credit. Then, they placed second in their first GSTL appearance, bringing first place finisher Slayers down to the last map. The very next season, they took the trophy home. And while at first, MVP's dominance solely came from recent MLG champ DRG, MVP's supporting players began to show their true colors as well. Genius recovered from his slump to place second in a GSL finals, second only to DRG. Noblesse and Keen won the finals of a GSTL by themselves. And in addition to DRG, Monster had an amazing run through MLG as well, notably going 2-0 versus EGJYP's supposedly strongest match-up. All of MVP's players are looking up these days, ready to face their next challenge.

EG, on the other hand, is a juggernaut foreign team, and when they first appeared on the scene, everyone knew they would succeed. While EG started relatively small with only Idra as their star player, they steadily grew and grew, attracting top players from all around the world into their ranks. First Demuslim, then Puma, Huk, JYP, and most recently Thorzain have all been turned into Fiendish Masterminds. And while none of these players are performing at their respective peaks at the moment, each of them is still a force to be reckoned with. JYP, Thorzain, and Puma have all placed extremely high in the recent MLG. Puma, in particular, placed in the top 6 only losing to 3 players, first and second place finishers DRG and Alicia, and Leenock. Still, EG should face significant problems facing a full GSTL team when they are just but one half of a whole. Without Slayers to back them up, a challenge awaits them.

This battle, in addition to being a conflict between players, minds, and strategies, could be seen as a battle of team building philosophies. Can a foreign team, with seemingly all the money in the world, hope to match against a home-grown Korean team? Tune in to find out!

Prediction: MVP 5:3 EG


Sickness, a member of dtG, was once quoted as saying his team only had a "0.0000000000000001% chance" versus oGs. So if they truly had a infinitesimal odds versus a failing oGs, surely they will do even worse against IM, a team that alone claims 7 GSL championships, right? Well....it might not be so clear-cut. IM's coach is notorious for making questions player picks in team tournaments. Most recently, IM decided not to send out the most recent GSL champion, MVP, into their GSTL match versus Fnatic, causing them to promptly fall out of the league.

Perhaps even more important to note is that IM's champion dual, MVP and Nestea, are almost never ever sent out in online team leagues, which makes dtG task much much easier. Sure, Happy and Losira are top top end players, and Seed recently made it into the round of 16 in Code S, but at least they're still beatable, right? Right.....? As a team that has not had a true GSL level player in a very long time, dtG will sure need a lot of hoping and praying for this battle, but hey, they overcame the odds and beat aTn-Type last time we saw them. Who says the upsets have to end here?

Prediction: IM 5:2 dtG


In civil war, brother is pitted against brother in a battle for ideals. Quantic has seceded from StartaleQ just for this tournament, and they have the unfortunate luck to bump into their old pals at Startale. I've always wanted to see a oGs and Liquid duke it out in a intra-partnership, intra-teamhouse team battle, but as those hopes are long gone, this will have to make do.

The relationship between the two teams, especially the two teams' Protosses is very symbiotic as they often share builds and strategies. For example, every StartaleQ Protoss uses a clever resource-optimizing 2 gas opening in both PvP and PvT. And recently, we realized that "the Parting build" is actually the Naniwa build. When they are forced to fight, the two teams will have intimate knowledge of each others' builds and strategies, so who can even begin to fathom the level of mind games that will be employed in the resulting games.

We will probably see Naniwa, the superb MLG performer, Sase, and the recently acquired Code S stud, theStC , playing in this war, but who else out of their 18 man lineup will step up? Hawk may be asked to play again after his amazing performace versus Karont3. Or the American favorite Illusion will be able to show off his Korean stomping prowess once again. Or perhaps Quantic will try to keep it within Korean borders and call the Apocalypse in to help.

Whatever Quantic decides, do not look for Startale to underestimate the foreigner team. After practicing with them for many months, they know better than anyone else how much of a threat Quantic poses. With superstars like Parting, Squirtle, and Bomber in addition to top players like Curious, July, Ace, and Virus, Startale boasts perhaps the most well-rounded lineup of any team on the planet. After losing in the most disappointing fashion possible in their last clan war, Startale will be hungry for a win, even if it means sacrifices within the family have to be made.

Prediction: Startale 5:3 Quantic


Not too long ago, FXO.KR would have looked like the strong favorite in this war. Leenock had won the biggest MLG there had ever been, Lucky placed second at IPL3, Oz was considered one of the top Protoss in the world, and Gumiho made a round of 4 in a GSL. As a team, FXO.KR made it to the round of 4 in the GSTL before being beaten by eventual champions Prime. TSL, on the other hand, was on the Zenex tier of Korean teams, with a slumping ace in Polt and a relatively unknown supporting lineup.

But oh how times have changed. FXO.KR has been recently slumping heavily lately; Leenock is no longer considered a top 3 Zerg, Lucky dropped out of Code A for a while, Gumiho does not look nearly as good as he once did, and Oz has left FXO, searching for glittering treasures on a foreign team. Meanwhile, TSL has gained a Super Ace in Symbol in addition to a stronger, more in-form Polt, reinforcing their lineup just enough to make it into the round of 8 in the GSTL. Somehow, someway in this series of unpredictable events, TSL became the surprising favorite in this team battle.

At the same time, however, TSL's victory is far from assured. TSL's strength is fragile and hinges on just two players. If FXO can manage to snipe either of their two aces, TSL will be severely behind, as their supporting lineup has shown no real spark of brilliance or even competence. And while Symbol looked especially dominant in the GSTL, winning 9 games in a row, there are obvious cracks in his armor. At the MLG Spring Championships, Symbol did not meet expectations and lost to both MVPDream and TSLInori, two players he should have been definitely favored over. Can coach Choya plan some brilliant sniping builds to propel his team into victory once again? We shall see in FXO.KR vs TSL.

Prediction: TSL 5:4 FXO.KR