by: Zealously

Afternoon Matches - 04:10 GMT (+00:00)

Crazy (Crazy-Hydra) vs TRUE (Alone)

This match-up has the potential to be truly...crazy. Silly puns aside, these players have actually faced off recently – just two weeks ago in Proleague. Crazy emerged victorious then, and will look to do so again. While Crazy has played 7 ZvZ’s. Until this week, TRUE’s only recorded ZvZ is his loss vs his Code A opponent, until he added a loss to Sacsri to make things even worse for him. On one hand, it would feel weird not to favor the guy that’s actually won games versus Zerg. But on the other hand, Team 8 has risen from the pit of mediocrity in Proleague, and with TRUE having beaten a relatively strong player in Hack to get here, who can say for sure that he’s not been giving his ZvZ everything in preparation for this match?

While this match might just as well be a coinflip, in the end I’m going to go with Crazy here anyway. He’s beaten a few Zergs in Proleague (most notably Jaedong), and lost to a few good ZvZers. However, the fact that TRUE has only played (and lost) two games makes him hard to predict in this series.

Prediction: Crazy 2 – 1 TRUE

Rain vs KeeN

Rain came into Code A intent on making a statement, and he began to so as he dispatched Shine with very little trouble. And since Keen intended to make the first Code S of 2013 his season, he will be in a hurry to get back.

Rain’s PvT may have lost its aura of invincibility since his loss to MVP’s Dream last season, he has hardly looked helpless. In fact, I would go as far as to say that anyone who has been criticizing Rain’s play after his loss to Dream (who has been beating Protoss players left and right recently) will be proven wrong in this series. I don’t for a second doubt Keen’s ability, and he could very well bring out a strong timing attack or two to bring Rain down, but Rain’s defenses tend to be rock-solid. Given the fact that Keen hasn't played a TvP recently, I’m inclined to go with Rain.

In the end, this will come down to Keen’s rate of improvement. He played some rather impressive TvP in Code S toward the end of last year, and if 2013 really is to be the year that "gives birth to him", this is the series to win.

Prediction: Rain 2 – 1 Keen

Killer vs soO

soO has gone from being a somewhat unremarkable, often overlooked KeSPA Zerg to "The guy that knocked Mvp out of GSL". Killer, on the other hand, has gone from "That one guy on MVP that everyone’s always giving credit" to someone who looks to have improved a lot recently. Taking out Happy, a very solid Terran with strong TvP, is no mean feat, and adding soO to his kill list would go a long way to convince people that he’s back in form and ready to roll.

Personally, I’m liking the way this match looks for Killer. It’s statistically his strongest match-up, and he has a beyond great set of practice partners with different styles in DongRaeGu, Sniper and Monster. With practice partners like that, Killer’s will likely have a whole deck of cards up his sleeve. soO isn’t completely helpless in this series given that he has practice partners of his own (if he has been getting sufficient practice time with Parting, he should be developing an immunity to the immortal/sentry), but Killer is still looking like the favorite.

Prediction: Killer 2 – 1 soO


Shine vs FanTaSy

"Choo-choo" says the Fantasy TvZ-train, picking up the pace after easily dispatching Zenio last week and playing one of the greatest TvZ’s in Proleague against Effort. "Uh oh" says Shine, knowing that he’s the definite underdog. Whereas Fantasy has been looking very solid in the match-up for a long time, with his heavy aggression-style capable of picking apart even the toughest opponents, Shine has looked quite the opposite. While he regularly gets fielded in Proleague, his ZvT hasn’t exactly been a strong point – with his only win in the match-up being against Canata in the Hybrid Season.

This match seems set in stone, dangerously so. I want to predict a Fantasy 2-0 based on his recent form and how well his aggression style seems to work on the maps he gets to work with, but the match-ups that seem the most clear often end up being not so, and I’ll give Shine a small chance considering that he has had ample preparation time. Knowing SKT’s preferences, it is entirely possible that Fantasy has hardly even looked at this match, instead favoring Proleague with him already being guaranteed a spot in the Up&Downs. But with how the two have looked in the match-up, there is only one reasonable conclusion to this series.

Prediction: Fantasy 2 – 1 Shine

by: stuchiu


HerO vs Bomber

With this being the last WoL tournament, the stakes of the ro24 Code A are higher as getting into the first Code S for HotS will be a historic moment. As such with the volatility of a new release, it will be one of the best chances for anyone to get a GSL trophy. With that in mind, two perennial Code S players must now duke it out for that coveted spot. The one that wins is guaranteed to get Code S, the one that loses is regulated to Up/Down purgatory.

Both Hero and Bomber are well known for their consistency problems. Hero can’t perform his best outside of the month of December and the second Bomber sees the letters Code S, his skill and gameplay start to falter. With this being Code A though, both players will be playing their best. On top of that both players are on good form lately, with Hero doing well in Proleague and a nice Code A run while Bomber won one Code S group and played well in the other. This will come down to who is better in the matchup and their condition on the day, but I’ll side with Bomber here as his specialty has always been TvP and Hero seems to have trouble with the higher echelon of TvP players.

Prediction: Bomber 2 – 0 Hero

YongHwa vs Leenock

On any given day, Yonghwa can beat anybody and he proved it in his last round taking down Creator, one of the best Protosses WoL has to offer. While no one doubts that he can play at the top with the very best, Yonghwa’s nerves and confidence seem to get the best of him as the more important the match, the more likely he is to fumble the game. This will be a problem as his opponent is Leenock, the best Zerg player to have never won a GSL. On the best of days, Leenock would be a hard opponent to beat, but when you factor in his inconsistency issues and possible eye problems, Leenock seems to be the clear favorite here.

Prediction: Leenock 2 – 0 Yonghwa

YoDa vs MarineKing

With MVP out of GSL, it is now up to Yoda to fulfill the sacred duty of making MKP cry at the hands of an IM Terran. It will be a tough task to fulfill as TvT is one of MKP’s better matchups and varies his play style enough to make him hard to prepare for. Yoda’s only real advantage here is that he hasn't played a TvT since November last year making him a bit of a question mark for MKP. While Yoda is a very strong solid Terran, MKP’s experience and builds will be too much for him to handle.

Prediction: MKP 2 – 1 Yoda

Sniper vs HyuN

The fun killer meets the King of Fighters for an encore of last year’s GSL Finals. This ZvZ should be interesting as the last time these two met they went the entire 7 sets and in the last game they fought tooth and nail with Sniper barely coming out on top. Since then they have both fallen down a bit as they were both knocked out of Code S. While both players are no longer the best in the world, this will be a critical match for both.

Sniper wants the recognition and respect he is due as the last GSL Champion. Every victory he has ever has has been overshadowed. He all-kills Slayers, and everyone only remembers he made Eve cry. He wins GSL and everyone talks about Ryung's last words. While he can no longer win GSL, he will do his best to make sure he is in the first HotS Code S ever, even if it means he has to take Hyun's Fight Club gloves and bludgeon him with them.

Hyun wants redemption. Ever since his loss at Sniper’s hands he went from a world destroyer to just another strong Zerg in the mix. Afterwards he joined Zombie Quantic and just like his team, Hyun wants a revival. This victory could be the very thing Hyun is looking for as it would lay to rest any demons he may still have from his GSL run. This will be a very hard fought match by both players as they are both extremely strong in ZvZ, but I’ll favor Sniper just the tiniest bit as he played a touch better in Code S than Hyun did.

Prediction: Sniper 2 – 1 Hyun