Back to the Future

After the winners round two, we return again to the lower bracket, where the losers of the last two weeks will turn on each other in an attempt to remain in the tournament. For four more teams; it'll be an abrupt exit, while for four others; new life. The bracket of a 24 team double elimination tournament proves to be quite complicated, and the winners of this week's matches will probably get an easier next round match than the one before. So this round represents something of an anomaly, as some strong teams will see earlier exits than they perhaps deserve.

Still there's only one way to 'deserve' anything at all in this league, and that's to win. For the elite teams unfortunate enough to be bumped into the lower bracket, it's now or never to prove that they can do exactly that.

Week Five (Winners Round 2) Review

By tree.hugger

After this week, you can bet that EG would rather not face MvP.Monster any time soon. It wasn't just this. Monster went 2-0 against both HuK and JYP to knock them out of MLG Spring Championships. At the GIGABYTE LAN, Monster knocked out DeMusliM. Perhaps EG has an issue with beating players that have the same name as one of their sponsors. Just wait until mouz.KingstonHyperX and Liquid`BigFootNetworks.

But this series wasn't so much of a joke for EG, they were rolled in a way that probably shouldn't be possible at this point. Even EG's twitter failed to mention the series, (something that, to their credit, they've done in almost every other circumstance) and IdrA began streaming right as the match started, perhaps—many would allege—to try to draw viewers away from the massacre on IPLtv. Monster is a superb player; one of the best representatives of a resurgent zerg race in Korea. But Monster didn't make anything look particularly close, and faced EG's absolute top tier line-up. Hindsight being 20/20, the choice to start with ThorZaIN is probably the easiest thing to question; as the spoon terran seems to excel late in the series, with an opponent to think about and prepare for. At the same time, perhaps EG knew the starter with even more time to spare, so who can tell.

At any rate, it didn't work out. That's bad, but EG wasn't favored against MvP anyway, and there's no difference between a 4-5 and a 0-5 as far as the brackets are concerned. EG drops down to the lower bracket to face dtG, and there they should feel comfortable as the favorites. Results like this and fan folklore nonwithstanding, EG has a top-tier line-up in this tournament, and especially the sending of HuK shows that they're extremely serious about this event. They should be able to put together a good run in losers, despite this defeat.

For MvP, the Korean move on into the 'GSTL' portion of the IPL TAC. Foreign teams well behind them, they will now face IM in what may be the top matche of the third winners round. Hopefully the series goes long, with Monster, DRG, MVP and NesTea coming out. Not too much to ask, right? But it should be close.





After a few weeks without an all-kill, who would've guessed we'd see two to start off the week! Yet YongHwa had no trouble against a dtG line-up that was probably a little depleted (no Peony and Otter) and IM rolled to a 5-0 victory. The fairy tale hit a brick wall for dtG; the little Korean team that could, as the might of a GSTL pro-house was too much to bear. Similar to the EG match, nothing here was *really* close, and YongHwa looked better than he had since Artosis cursed him with fanboyism.

The symmetry here is pretty fun; the all-killed will face the all-killed in the lower bracket, while all-killer faces all-killer in the next round. IM moves on against MvP, with both looking; well... as strong as you can look.

dtG meanwhile drops down against EG. For EG, their loss wasn't as expected, but for dtG, they're already outperforming expectations. After upsetting aTn.Type, they've already made a name for themselves. Now, against EG, they have the picture perfect opportunity to make a huge splash; against one of the most popular and well known foreign teams. It'll be tough; EG is obviously a fearsome opponent, but if dtG can get their full A-line-up together, and the likes of Sickness, Otter, and Peony can put some wins together, than they could keep the little Korean engine that could going.





ST is obviously a brilliant team, but headlined by NaNiwa and SaSe, who are training at the Startale house, and with the powerful remnants of Vile's line-up, Quantic definitely had a chance at the upset. But Startale held on comfortably with Bomber leading the way as Quantic fed him terrans. You can definitely pick at Quantic's line-up choices; after opening with Apocalypse, sending two more terrans against Bomber is a bit questionable. Surely Hawk, who four killed so impressively against Karont3, or State, who landed some big PvT wins in the last IPL TAC, would've been the better choice than theognis, and perhaps also Illusion. Eventually, Quantic took Bomber seriously with SaSe, and the Swedish protoss took back the win. After KingKong put Quantic on the brink, NaNiwa intervened, but was subsequently sniped by PvP. Quantic has perhaps the deepest line-up in this tournament (I don't just mean in terms of size), but questionable line-up choices and a reluctance to deploy their aces was Quantic's downfall, without PartinG, Squirtle, or Curious being deployed against them.

Still I like Quantic's chances against most teams. In the next round, however, they definitely have the tallest order of anyone; going up against FXO. The Korean squad is minus Oz, and hasn't looked as good as they used to look, but that's no cause for celebration for Quantic, any GSTL team will surely be a dangerous opponent. NaNiwa and SaSe will be once again required to carry the team, and the big red steering wheel will hope for more help from their Vile supporting cast. New pickups TheStC and possibly decemvre will be available as well. Quantic strikes me as a team that has underperformed so far in teamleagues. Hopefully they figure it out this week.

Meanwhile, Startale presses on. They've established themselves as one of the best squads in teamleagues this year, and will be hoping to continue their success. Their next opponents; TSL, are similarly on the rise, so their WR3 confrontation is looking like an exciting battle of up-and-coming stars. Absolutely not something to miss out on. A potential Squirtle-SymboL match-up looms!





This tournament saw two 5-4 wins in the first week, and only two since. But FXO and TSL delivered a classic in the first match between GSTL teams so far in the tournament. TSL's formiddable zerg line-up scored a few kills, but eventually needed to be bailed out by Polt. Meanwhile, FXO saw some key wins come from non-traditional sources, as Tear and TheBest far outperformed Leenock and GuMiho. Eventually, in a thrilling war of attrition on Tal'Darim Altar, Inori was simply too active for Lucky's slow broodlord infestor army, bringing the win into TSL's column after the back and forth. It was interesting how both teams reversed each other's line-ups; TSL started with zergs and FXO ended with them. This led to the prized result of a nine-game series without a single mirror match-up. Well done to both teams for providing an entertaining series as well as a competitive one.

Tough cookies for FXO, who drops down to the lower bracket despite their strong performance here. They'll face Quantic as the favorites; but will need to have better support from their supposed aces; Gumibear and the Leenocktapus weren't so deadly in this series. A GuMiho-Apocalypse match would be awesome to see; the last time they played in the IPL ToC before IPL4, Apocalypse stunned GuMiho 3-0 in some fantastic TvTs. It'd be excellent to see them go to battle again.

Meanwhile, TSL has gone from being a team on the brink of disbandment to one of the world's best teams in a very short period. The king of this party is SymboL, whose own rise has mirrored his team's. But Polt has been a stalwart for TSL, and players like HyuN, RagnaroK, and RevivaL have built a fearsome zerg line; just in time for zerg dominance in the metagame. Then there's Inori, who has new life on TSL; morphing from just a PvP sniper into a well rounded and dominant player. This is a fun team to watch, and despite being the only GSTL team not seeded up a round, they've proved they deserved better by storming into the winners bracket quarter finals.

Week Six (Losers Round 1.5) Preview

By NrGmonk

With the departure of Thorzain, Mouz has been looking for someone to step up to fill rather his large shoes. And what better player to replace the previous winner of Dreamhack than the current winner of Dreamhack, Mana. Mana, who had always been known for his impressive PvP and legendary PvT once again showed these match-ups at Dreamhack by taking down merz and Hero(who had previously gone 20-0 in this tournament). But perhaps much more impressively, Mana's Dreamhack run was paved with dead Zergs, a race he previously struggled heavily with. By taking down Bly, Dimaga, and even the Protoss killer, Stephano, Mana perhaps showed that this previously perceived weakness may start to become a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, Acer's ace, Nerchio, has also been on the upswing. After winning one of those extremely difficult TL qualifiers and placing top 4 and top 8 in back to back Dreamhacks, Nerchio has never looked better. Even in his both Dreamhack loses, Nerchio was only eliminated by top players, including the recently dominating Monster and the always dominating Stephano. But with elfi's recent departure of Acer, Bly remains the only other notable player on the team. Bly, a name unfamiliar to most, is known for being an online beast, and has won perhaps more European online tournaments than anyone since Goody. In last week's match against Prime, Bly was responsible for three out of four kills, including even MKP; it's no secret that Bly does especially well in this online format. And although the rest of the team might be lacking, Nerchio and Bly alone should be a huge threat to Mouz.

While Mouz, by name and results, seems to be the stronger team, last week's results tell a different story. Mouz lost to only two of Liquid's "weaker" non-Korean players in Sheth and Haypro while Acer took IPL TAC2 champions, Prime, to the very last map. If you take a step back and see the notable players of each team, Mana, Morrow, Hasuobs, and biGs vs Nerchio and Bly, you'll see that it's not unthinkable at all that Acer could make the upset and take this. Especially likely is multiple kills from Nerchio, who even after Mana's Dreamhack win, I would still rate as the best player out of this bunch. Still Mouz's notable players double Acer's in number, so they should will still be the favorites.

Prediction: Mouz 5:4 Acer





Empire and FXO.CIS are the big two teams from Eastern Europe and their rosters combined contain almost all of the best players from this area. (Hurry up and conform, White-ra and Dimaga!) So I guess today, we get to find out which is definitively the best Eastern European team, right? Right? Well, Empire might be tempted to cheat a bit, using their Koreans in Violet and Vines, giving them a pretty sizable advantage. Good thing for FXO.CIS, they're not afraid of Koreans, as they showed by beating Complexity's full Korean lineup and taking three maps off of GSTL level team, NSH. FXO.CIS, even with these great results, is still a relatively unknown team. Because the entire team lives all the way in Eastern Europe, visa issues generally prove to be a huge determent to attending Lans. Unfortunately for them, fewer Lan results equals less fame, but fortunately for them, they are often underestimated for the very same reason.

While Empire did worse against their Korean opponent last week, you can't fault them for losing to one of the most solid Protoss in the world, Puzzle, and one of the most up and coming Protoss, Crank. Empire has a reputation to defend; they were one of the best teams before their recent recruitment wave of three players, and they should continue to be an even better team in the future. TheMista has already shown to be worth his salt, Vines is another one of those up-and-coming Protoss, and Violet is a Code S player, probably one of the top five Zergs in the world. These new additions should give Empire the slight advantage, but if any team can turn the myth that Koreans > Foreigners on its head, it's FXO.CIS.

Prediction: Empire 5:4 FXO.CIS





Even though Quantic has the biggest roster in IPL TAC, they have never been known as a team that does well in team leagues. While they had two of the best players in the world in Naniwa and Sase, both players had trouble performing in team leagues, and sometimes, Quantic just decided to not play them, often times only using their NA lineup, which just wasn't up to par to their two Protoss stars. With Quantic absorbing Vile's entire roster, they gained a much needed reinforcement of backup players. And with theStc's debut as Quantic.Stc for this first time in this match, Quantic is actually looking like a competitive team these days. Not only will they sport a very competent lineup for this match, I can think of no better team to play for their first challenge than their opponents this day.

FXO.KR, while still a traditional Korean team with a team house and coaches, has been on the downturn lately. Since making top 4 in GSTL last season, FXO.KR has been just disappointing lately with Leenock, Lucky, and Gumiho falling off and Oz leaving the team. As of now, they are regarded as one of the worse teams in Korea. It was fairly obvious that last week, Quantic would fall to the primer Korean team of Startale, but FXO.KR is a much more manageable team to face, more of a Mount Kangchenjunga rather than a Mount Everest, if you will. On the other hand, FXO.KR did take TSL to the last map last week, so this quest will definitely not be so easy for Quantic.

Edit: Since writing this preview, Quantic has signed yet another player in Decemvre. So welcome Quantic.Decemvre. Quantic's previous 18 man roster just wasn't enough to take down FXO.KR. But with your addition, 19 players may just be enough to push them over the top!

Prediction: FXO.KR 5:4 Quantic





EG was all-killed by MVP.Monster last week. And although it's not a shame to lose to MVP nor a shame to lose to the rising star in Monster, being all-killed by not-DRG should be a huge disappointing for such a strong and proud team like EG. The recent huge disappointments at Dreamhack also must leave a bitter taste in their mouths. The arguably top four players of EG, all known for being able to win tournaments, all attended Dreamhack, but none of them were able to make it into the round of 16 bracket play. Perhaps a vacation is needed in order to restore the team to proper form. And to EG, their next opponents must seem like a vacation compared to the opponents they've been facing.

dtG, who looked so promising in round one against aTn-Type, was all-killed last week by Younghwa, a player who is not known for being particularly skilled, but is known for having a very solid and safe playstyle. Players like this tend to win a lot of games versus people worse than them, but at the same time take fewer wins against players better than them. What this says to me is no one on dtG is significantly better than Younghwa, a definitively Code B Korean. On the other hand, there are plenty of players on EG better than Younghwa. As long as EG doesn't totally phone this one in, this match should be a piece of cake and a much needed rest for their next matches. Just one more piece of advice for EG: don't underestimate the Otter, the one and only dtG.Otter.

Prediction: EG 5:2 dtG