Last March of the Foreigners?

Last round looked a lot like the GSTL, with Prime, SlayerS, NSHoSeo, IM, MvP, TSL, Startale, and even Liquid participating. Scratch that, it looked exactly like the GSTL. There was no shortage of drama last week, with TaeJa all-killing after Liquid was down almost to the wire. Then there was Startale and TSL actually down to the wire, with Squirtle beating RevivaL, SymboL and Polt to bring his team to victory. There was also no shortage of dominating stomps, with the other two matches ending 5-2 and 5-1 in favor of SlayerS and IM respectively. So plenty of action across the board.

This week, the foreigners return, as the action shifts down to the losers bracket. Acer and aTn-Type clash, a match that might see the debut of Scarlett to IPL TAC action. Karont3 and Empire will battle second, EG and Dignitas in a match of the big name foreign teams, and finally (as a palate cleanser) we have FXO.Korea vs compLexity.

Another awesome week is at hand in the IPL TAC! Don't miss a moment!

Week Seven (Winners Round 3) Review

By tree.hugger

What a turnaround this was. I can't claim much objectivity in this; obviously I also manage TeamLiquidPro, and I knew the results here beforehand (one reason I don't make the predictions!) so my reaction to this is well digested. But here's a personal story about this set. This was the first IPL TAC match I wasn't watching with the team, as it was played around GSL time. Due to certain circumstances, Liquid was actually limited to the GSTL line-up for this match, as Ret, Sheth, and NonY were unavailable. Anyway, I woke up (Eastern US time) and immediately checked the results on my phone. I scrolled down extremely slowly, just one set at a time, and my heart plummeted, as AnnYeong (ANNYEONG!!!) took the first three wins. It's really awful to be anticipating a crushing defeat. But then TaeJa came in, and TaeJa was sublime. I kept scrolling down expecting to see MKP or Creator inserted and turning it around, but when both of those stellar players came up, TaeJa shut them back down. It was a good morning.

Overall, it was a great set as well. Depending on your perspective, AnnYeong's match against HerO was brilliant, terminally boring, proof of zerg OP, or even proof of protoss OP. But it was a crushing loss for HerO, who held a massive advantage for most of the game, but simply could not finish the zerg off. On the flip side, TaeJa's all-kill seemed to be a massive spark for the terran. In the time after, TaeJa has qualified for MLG Summer Arena and IPL5, advanced from his Code S Ro16 group and won the ESV Korean Weekly. The all-kill is one of the peaks of accomplishment in Sc2; it's often more than a championship, because it wasn't just for you, it was for the team. TaeJa's all-kill was a seminal moment in his tenure at Liquid, and it seems, a seminal moment for his confidence as well. Against SlayerS next, Liquid will again lean on TaeJa, as well as HerO and Zenio. With their recent form, it might be fair to even think they could pull yet another upset.

For Prime, this was a difficult loss; taking three kills without Creator, Maru, or MKP out should guarantee victory. But perhaps this was justice for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat against Liquid last season. It's temping to say that Prime has looked sketchy this season, with only a 5-4 win and this 3-5 loss in their record. But this was the team that won 5-4 every time last season of the IPL TAC, and this is the team with MKP and a absolutely stellar supporting cast. There's no doubt that they can put together a massive LB run. Liquid's gain here was the loss of coL, FXO, and everyone else who now will find Prime squarely in their path.





NSHoSeo is a streaky team. Generally, thinks depend on their ability to kill other teams with Jjakji. So as a start, not having Jjakji play in this match against SlayerS probably lost them the game already. There was probably a good reason for Jjakji's no-show, but it doesn't make it any less of a shame that he wasn't sent out. With him, NSHS has a chance against anybody. Without him, they one of the weakest Korean teams.

Not to take anything away from SlayerS, who brought the fire early with Puzzle, and kept it on all series long with an A-team line-up. I'm always skeptical about the thought behind putting your ace out first, as SlayerS did here, but he survived the PvP and took an extra kill which was a great set-up. Sculp and San did their best to keep it close, but it was Miya (whom SlayerS appears to have some confidence in) who ultimately put the nail in NSHS's coffin. The series basically taught us very little. SlayerS is very deep, NSHS has lower quality depth. Jjakji could make a case for being the best player on both teams, but when he isn't fielded (and even this, SlayerS has many available snipers) NSHS goes down flat. Pretty simple all around.

SlayerS moves on, and despite facing a hot Liquid team, they will probably be pleased that they dodged Prime. With only three total losses so far against strong opposition, SlayerS is looking like one of the teams to beat in this competition, and Boxer's army likely has their sights set on the finals at this rate.

For NSHS, it's a moment to relax and await the winner of two foreign teams in EG and Dignitas. NSHS will probably appreciate the break, although if EG should advance from that pairing, they shouldn't underestimate a team with some Korean firepower of it's own. Still, at this stage, Korean teams are again heavy favorites by default. If NSHS can bring Jjakji again to bear, last season's champions of the losers bracket can put together a repeat performance.





Another surprisingly lopsided affair, this was a battle between the two all-killers of the previous round. One school of thought would've had this being an awesome slugfest going down to the wire. The other would probably have predicted something like this. Seed and Happy got on a roll, and MvP couldn't stop the momentum. It could've easily gone the other way, you have to feel. MvP has had a ton of players looking great recently, between Monster, Sniper, and DRG, they look an extremely powerful opponent. But the hero against EG was not to be found here, and IM brought out their own recent stars without using their all-killer YongHwa as well. Seed, who recently qualified for TSL4, and Happy, who's been around for a while, were more than enough.

Up next for IM comes Startale; another team with some great recent form. These two teams once collided in the very first GSTL finals, a dramatic 5-4 series ending with NesTea taking the final game against Squirtle. These two haven't been at the top of the teamleague scene together in a while, so this will be a fun and unusual match-up. The key might come down to whether IM's starleague winners will bestir themselves at last in the IPL TAC.

For MvP, meanwhile, a crushing loss to be sure, but it's not the end of the world. They'll go down to the losers bracket to bop some foreign teams, starting with the winner of Empire and Karont3. While that's two of the most talented squads from foreigners in this tournament, it's still a reprieve for MvP from the Korean dangers of the winners bracket.





Ah, finally a Korea vs Korea match-up that delivered! Startale and TSL, both teams looking extremely good. Both are also in the same GSTL group, but TSL is through to the next round and ST is in the losers match, so they will sadly avoid a confrontation. But in IPL TAC, they fought down to the wire. For a brief moment, it looked like it might be the same as the other matches, with a quick win for TSL after Curious and Sound went down meekly. But then Squirtle came out, and TSL was toast. With the strong PvP of Inori out as well as the strong recent form of HyuN, TSL was out of some options, but still SymboL and Polt (who actually hasn't been brilliant in teamleagues... but still) remained. Sadly for TSL, Squirtle went back to his roots as a teamleague ace, and the protoss cleaned up.

For Startale, on to face IM, in a match worthy of the finals. IM has been brilliant so far, but Startale has a back to front top level line-up in both the GSTL and in teamleagues. If Squirtle delivers, OR if PartinG delivers, OR if Bomber delivers, Startale will be in strong strong shape. AcE, Curious, and Sound as your supporting cast as well? That's pretty solid.

For TSL, it's tough luck. They played extremely well, and are a very very strong team. But their consolation, as is the case with all of this round's losers, is a trip to foreigner bash into the losers bracket. TSL will see the winner of this week's aTn-Type vs Acer. They should be the heavy favorites against both, although the potential Nerchio-Scarlett battle could threaten TSL's zergs. But maybe not, we'll see!

Week Eight (Losers Round Two) Preview

By NrGmonk

This match will mark the true return of Scarlett, her first major appearance since her astounding run through the open bracket at IPL4 in Las Vegas. Although we all expected her to debut against Acer when she was on Eclypsia, the stars just didn't align and perhaps it is fate that she now joins to help the team she once refused to fight. With Scarlett's recruitment, Acer now has five Zergs and just one Terran in DarkHydra, who must be nervous around his teammates, that is, if he hasn't been infested already. (I mean, come on, his name is DarkHydra.) Even though the roster is a bit lopsided, it has proven to be a formidable one. And if we've learned nothing from this season of GSTL, it's that Zergs are pretty damn good at team leagues. Perhaps this all-Zerg team is ahead of its time, and soon more teams will drop all their Terran/Protoss to follow this trend.

Anyways, in their last round, Acer, with the help of the Terran, DarkHydra, dispatched what what most people would consider the best all-foreigner team in the world, Mousesports. The round before that, they barely lost to IPL TAC2 champion, Prime, in a close 4-5 score after being up 4-2. And although this writer doubted Acer's ability in both of these previous rounds, I'm now a believer that they are one of the primer teams in Europe, led by one of the best Europeans at the moment, Nerchio. In contrast, none of aTn-Type's players have really impressed me so much lately, with the teams' most recent notable performance being Socke run through MLG Spring Championships almost a month ago. Oh, and I guess Real placed third in the MLG Europen Qualifiers, behind Nerchio. And while Acer's results in this team league have been impressive, Atn-Type's results have been much less so, notably losing to an relatively unknown team in dtG. All signs point to an Acer victory here, and it would take another upset (something both teams are known for) in both directions for Alternate-Type to take this win.



Prediction: Acer 5-3 Alternate-Type


The biggest news for Empire this week is that their biggest star, Violet, is now a free agent. Of course, losing an MLG champion is a huge blow, but Empire is one of the few teams that is strong and solid enough to withstand such a heavy blow. Kas is still in good standing for "top 2 Terran outside Korea", Happy shows amazing results both in team leagues and on ladder, and Beastyqt is looking better than ever with his recent all-kill over FXO.CIS. Vines and Mista are also looking very solid, and are a strong Protoss duo to round out the team. Although they have no more Zergs (a huge problem if they were competing in GSTL, obviously), their top 5 is more than enough to tear apart any non-Korean teams.

Karont3, while showing that all their players are formidable in their last match versus x6, still have not given us any notable LAN results to go off of since we last reviewed them. In addition, Lucifron's hype that he gained from beating a lot of top players in a short span has died down a bit. No longer is the hot new kid on the block that everyone's talking about, and it will take a lot better results before he can get to that level of hype again. And in fact, it is his brother, Vortix, who seems to be Karont3's ace, as he has scored four wins in the past two matches to Lucifron's zero.

While the Duran brothers, including Duran brother #3, Ryo, make for both an interesting story-line and a formidable team, nothing they have done tells me that have a good chance at all in this match. While Duran power is probably enough to prevent Karont3 from getting clobbered, expect Empire to stand tall with victory flag in hand after the dust subsides.

Prediction: Empire 5-3 Karont3





The pernicious prodigies certainly cannot be too happy with their performances so far in IPL TAC3. While they dispatched of iS rather soundly, they were all-killed by MVPMonster, and struggled a bit too much against the relatively unknown dtG for my taste, having to rely on Puma to clean up. And while it was stated that Thorzain was recruited partly to buff up EG's team league results, these results have not yet manifested for EG in the IPL TAC3. The only time Thorzain was used was as a starter vs Monster, and look what happened there. Thorzain especially has to step it up, but perhaps he might not need to against EG's next opponents.

If there's anything that Dignitas has proven to us in their run through team leagues, it's that they are just plain bad at them. While their team is filled to the brim with top 30 foreigners, their results do not speak to this. In IPL TAC2, they were one of the first teams to exit the tournament with double 3-5 losses to NSHS and a young Vile. They have fared no better in IPL TAC3, after being all-killed by LiquidZenio and narrowly beating a Eclypsia that was failing at its seams. Perhaps it is time to reconsider Dignitas' place in the e-sports world. It's been more a while for players like Bling to prove they're more than just up-and-comers. It's a been a long time since Select and SjoW were considered part of the elite of foreigners. And it's been ages since Dignitas has had a player like Naniwa who has the potential to take championships.

EG is easily the favorite going into the match, but they are known as a team that doesn't perform up to standards in team leagues and are more easily upset than some other teams. Fortunately for them, Dignitas has not been known for upsetting stronger teams in a very long time. Sure, Bling might beat some of EG's Terrans, and Select might show us a shimmer of his old form, but the stars would have to align perfectly for EG not to advance.

Prediction: EG 5-3 Dignitas




These past few months have been rough for FXO.KR. While 2011 gave them a champion in Leenock, and a respectable 2nd place for Lucky at IPL, times have never looked so hard. Of their four main players, Leenock/Lucky/Oz/Gumiho, Oz has left the team and his old teammates have begun to slump hard. Even so, FXO.KR showed a formidable performance against TSL last week, a team that currently looks much better on paper and has amazing momentum lately. Even though FXO.KR didn't win, a close 4-5 loss still showed that they were able to complete at the highest level.

coL has shown has mixed results in team leagues. On one hand, their performance in IPL TAC3 has been atrocious, with losses to Korean-less team, FXO.CIS, and only a 5-4 victory over the American based team, GoSu. On the other hand, they recently won the entire EG Masters Cup over the weekend, over GSTL level teams like Fnatic and SlayerS. While they lost a BW legend in Nada, it seems as if Killer has regained his early 2011 form, as he went 5-0 in series over the course of EG Masters Cup Finals Weekend, including 2 ace matches. It seems as if Nada gave Killer his remaining strength before riding off into the sunset, and because Nada has not been showing any decent results since joining complexity, this trade-off could turn out to be a huge boon to the team. One other thing to note about coL is that now that their Korean roster has been reduced to three, we will be able to see more of their foreign talent in the coming weeks, including qxc, Trimaster, goswser, and Ryze.

Still, while coL's rosters seems as formidable as ever, they still have not proven themselves in the all-kill format, a format that the GSTL team, FXO.KR, is all too familiar with. While both teams have individual players strong enough to potentially all-kill each others' teams, and it could be anyone's game, FXO.KR should be the favorite as the more cohesive, experienced team.

Prediction: FXO.KR 5-4 compLexity