As per IEM's new standard format, Global Challenge Katowice kicks off with one full day of open brackets to see which eight players will join the sixteen already qualified for the group stage. Given the convenient location of the tournament, a few continental stars have been drawn into the competition as well, joining the local gosus who will have to try harder than ever to make a splash. Here's a brief rundown of the players in the open.
Open Bracket 3 *BabyKnight has been forced to cancel his participation.
Open Bracket 4
mouz.MaNa: Consecutive PvP losses to Grubby and HasuObs in the online qualifiers saw MaNa fail to earn a direct spot in the groups. But looking at his open bracket (bracket 4), you might wonder if IEM should have just given MaNa a direct seed anyway. With a first round bye in a five man group, it's hard to imagine a world where a top European like MaNa doesn't make at least top two. As he's going to be one of the biggest favorites of the live audience, it would be a shame of if he didn't.
d.Tefel, Mill.DieStar, Acer.ParanOid: After the golden duo of MaNa and Nerchio (already qualified for the group stage), these three are the next most notable Polish players in the tournament. Given their positions in the brackets (byes for Tefel and DieStar, and a ridiculous three-man group for Paranoid), it looks they'll be able to make Katowice one of the few IEMs with a significant host representation in the group stages.
Liquid`TLO, Liquid`Ret: TLO and Ret have signed up for the open bracket, hoping to join their new teammate Snute and make it a trio of Liquid Zergs in the group stages. While TLO was once overshadowed by Ret in terms of tournament performances, things have turned almost completely around in the last few months. TLO has looked better and better with each and every tournament, while on the other hand, Ret has inexplicably gone through one of the worst stretches in his professional career. In his current shape, TLO looks like a strong favorite makes it through his group. In Ret's case, you still have to favor him to make it out of his six man bracket (he has a first round bye at that!) despite his recent run of mediocre to poor performances, but there's plenty of room for doubt until he shows that he's back to his old form.
VERDI: Verdi might be in the relative bracket of death (bracket 1) in this tournament (one that contains a full six players, and with DieStar and TLO to compete against), but he's the biggest candidate to cause an upset in the open bracket. In fact, I'm sure there's some Russian fans who would argue he's hardly an underdog at all. He defeated SortOf and Sen en route to a third place finish at IeSF 2012, and he did well in online play for Karont3 as a "mercenary" in 2012's IPTL, with a 4 - 1 record overall.
ESC.Daisy The ex-Prime player was impressive at his last international tournament at MLG Dallas, where he proved he hadn't got soft in Europe, defeating SKT's soO and Acer's Scarlett in a tie-13th finish. Alright, so he might have been a wee bit reliant on the immortal-sentry all-in, but you have to give credit where credit's due. He's the strong favorite to win his group, and could be a big threat in the group stages as well.
Tarson: Always a fan favorite, Tarson is going to have a lot of trouble getting through against Daisy and Ret (bracket 2). But if the blessing of Mvp is upon him, there is hope yet.
Whoever's in bracket 3: BabyKnight tweeted that his passport was stolen, and that he cannot compete at IEM Katowice. This guarantees two Polish players will make it to the group stage. Well played, Carmac.
Everyone Else: Given the way IEM has seeded their open bracket, you would think that it's very tough to see any of the underdogs or unknowns making it into the group stages. The more skilled or famous players are given first round byes, and with the double elimination format on top of that, it would require a highly unlikely sequence of events for one of the underdogs to get through. However, things don't always go according to plan, and we HAVE seen some surprising upsets in previous IEM tournaments as the underdogs proved they were the better players on the day. Back at IEM Cologne, we saw Grubby overcome both Oz and AcE to advance from his bracket, while ReaL edged out a red hot YongHwa to make it as well. Maybe you shouldn't bet money on the non-seeded players, but don't count them out.
I guess most teams didn't feel that it was worth it to send their players out for an open bracket, for one reason or another. TL sent some of their players who are not busy with Korean stuff, EG didn't send any presumably because their players who are not busy in Korea are focused on HOTS only.
On January 17 2013 11:59 SC_THORLORD wrote: ya, shme not more ppl went
Why prime no send MKP, he could prolly win, unless...ZERG
I don't think Prime has the funds to send one of their players to Europe for an open bracket with no guarantee of return, travel and lodging is expensive.
At least the actual tournament will be good, you have the new SK Telecom player, BWC & WCG champion, Blizzard Cup runner up Parting, Yoda ( Code S ) and First ( Code A ) from LG-IM, Grubby, MVPDream ( Code A ), Lucifron and Vortix, TL's new player and HSC champ Snute, New Startale player Golden, and Nerchio too. It's a pretty good lineup.
Bracket 3 is just funny. Wait if the the top two player in the bracket qualify for the group stage then that means Noispaxen and Paranoid automatically advance? Well played by Carmac indeed.
On January 17 2013 12:23 tuoli9 wrote: I was actually really excited about this event, but this player pool looks really depressing. Oh well, hopefully Tarson holds!
Did you look at the players already in groups? It has two players from your favorite team. These are just the open bracket players
On January 17 2013 12:52 jinorazi wrote: i was wondering how katowice was pronounced, upon googling; im so pround that my guess was correct! my english improving XD
Katowice is in Polish :p It's a City. Also cool thing to notice is that the arena(picture on this news)is named Spodek ( UFO).
Eeesh, disturbing brackets for any tournament. You never want even one open slot much less... a barren open bracket. However, at the end of any phase (in this case, WoL) you get this sort of thing. Top Masters and Grand Masters have learned there's no point to sign up for an open bracket because they keep getting 2-0'd by lower tier pros. Which is fine, totally acceptable, but at this stage of the game's development... well, if you were a GM player, would you rather spend the money and time going to a tournament you're going to get decimated at? Or, perhaps, spend some time with HotS?
Wow that's not many people O.o, also they should've moved one of scoobers/noispaxen down vs. paranoid if only 4 people are in that bracket (6-6-4-5 people groups could've been 5-5-5-6 D: )
On January 17 2013 11:52 BrokenMirage wrote: These open brackets are so empty... Why didn't more people sign up?
As for locals, 50€ is ridiculously much for us here to join just for fun. I'm honestly surprised to see that many unknown Polish players in the open bracket.
On January 17 2013 13:29 Crownlol wrote: Actually this is really sad... so open bracket 3... I'll post a few Polish high Master or GM players' tournament entry fee who's willing to play.
PM me!
That's a bit late. Too bad, money really was an issue for many players.
There is no much ppl in brackets, cause signing up for open bracket was for (if I remember correctyl) 50 euro, which for non-professional gamer without job, is not that small amount in Poland.
On January 17 2013 17:18 True_Spike wrote: Why would BK even need a passport to get to Poland? Doesn't he live in Denmark?
I think they don't really issue ID cards for every citizen and so the relevant document is passport in case of travel. He could probably drive a car and hoped for the best, though
Also it's not European Union - it's Shengen Zone. Not that i.e. Switzerland is also part of Shengen Zone and outside EU and Romania is in EU but outside Shengen Zone.
I feel really sad for the losers of DieStar/Verdi, Tarson/Daisy and Tefel/Funkay. They all have to drop out in the open bracket, while the guys in bracket 3 get a free ticket. Doesn't seem fair. :/
Of course if BabyKnight was there it would be more equal but still wouldn't make sense that Paranoid is all alone in his half. oO
On January 17 2013 17:18 True_Spike wrote: Why would BK even need a passport to get to Poland? Doesn't he live in Denmark?
Yeah I wonder about that es well. Inside the EU he should be able to travel without his passport.
And also. I am not very excited for IEM Poland. Seems likely that we will have only zergs and maybe Parting in the final rounds.
Its not the EU, its the Schengen Agreement. (UK is not in, but in EU; Switzerland is in, bot not EU)
You don't need a passport, but you need an ID (which Babyknight said he doesnt have). If you travel by car, you can get through without because they normally don't check. But IIRC he was flying, so he needs an ID anyway.
I wanted to go and show You guys some ridiculous cheeses but got sick during New Years party. As a result i got behind in my University work and have to stay here instead of going to Katowice. So sad that more people didnt sign up, i wonder whats the reason for it.
Funny how so many people think open bracket is all the players in the tournament and they can't use 5 more seconds of their time to see the groups and already qualified players, and then they whine here that nobody notable went to this tourney.
On January 17 2013 12:30 Dontkillme wrote: Personally it looks like a really boring line up of players. I miss IEM Cologne....
Dontkitkillme Korea (South).
1.ace 2. squirtle 3. mc ? (not sure about third xD)
but well was depressoing for all non koreans but actually still reallly funny i still remamber ace was there in code A , squrtle was code B and ace allready said that his teammate belongs into Code S
On January 17 2013 18:58 ViperPL wrote: Funny how so many people think open bracket is all the players in the tournament and they can't use 5 more seconds of their time to see the groups and already qualified players, and then they whine here that nobody notable went to this tourney.
Wow thats a relief T.T I thought Kespa was at its dirty works at again
Maybe you should see this as a sign. Kespa is bad or you have to think about : "kespa hatetrain much?"
But that would involve actually thinking for yourself and discerning information. Whereas it's much easier to just blindly hate an organization that you barely understand based off of little experience and the irrelevant and worthless opinions of people who didn't even know about Kespa until long into SC2.
Newcomers gonna be newcomers.
More on topic, the open bracket looks rather empty which is sad. I'll probably keep the stream open and muted and try to tune in to a few matches here and there. I don't know, the last IEMs really haven't captivated us as much as the older ones, there's been little emotional investment in them lately, for one reason or another. :s
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/iem/katowice/open1.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/iem/katowice/open2.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/iem/katowice/open3.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/iem/katowice/open4.png)
mouz.MaNa: Consecutive PvP losses to Grubby and HasuObs in the online qualifiers saw MaNa fail to earn a direct spot in the groups. But looking at his open bracket (bracket 4), you might wonder if IEM should have just given MaNa a direct seed anyway. With a first round bye in a five man group, it's hard to imagine a world where a top European like MaNa doesn't make at least top two. As he's going to be one of the biggest favorites of the live audience, it would be a shame of if he didn't.
d.Tefel, 
Mill.DieStar, 
