by Wunder

The Ro16 is fast approaching its end, but with it comes a saddening announcement: Azubu’s viOLet could not make it to New York as he had Visa issues, so he has forfeited his spot in the group. However, Starcraft 2 stops for no man, not even one as handsome as viOLet, and the group continues as is, with three Terrans battling it out for the top two spots.

If you look at the current results of the other Ro16 groups, you’ll immediately notice a pattern - Zero Terrans have advanced to the Ro8. Now we're ensured that at least two Terrans will make it into the bracket stages. These players are the last of their race and this, is their story.


aLive: Sometimes called the 'Invisible Terran', aLive could do with a new nickname in 'Damn Lucky Terran.' Initially having had the prospect of facing a very tough first opponent in viOLet, now he gets a first match bye. He has to win just a single best of three series to reach the Ro8, and earn a spot in next season's WCS America.

Alive has had a weird few months in the beginning of Heart of the Swarm. After being picked up by EG-TL as basically a stopgap Terran player for Proleague after ThorZaIN's departure and Taeja wrist issues, he performed admirably, showing a revitalized TvT and TvZ. However, more recently he hasn’t really been racking up the wins anymore. On the plus side, he looked dominant over MajOr in the last round. On the other hand, he has dropped games against Innovation and Flash in Proleague. Those two players you could hardly fault someone for losing too, but it’s still important to note going into an all-Terran group. Polt, and especially Ryung, are closer to Flash/Innovation than MajOr in the TvT department, so aLive can't relax even though he has a one match advantage.

Polt: Ah, the prophet, one of the only players who managed to predict the trends of Starcraft II AND react accordingly, Polt has managed to embed himself deep inside Texas and has become a fan favorite among the Americans. While we haven’t seen a lot from Polt in Heart of the Swarm TvT, with most of his wins coming from Zergs or Protoss, we mustn’t forget that his TvT in Wings of Liberty was very good, being able to take out players like Taeja or Bomber. If Polt's TvT has stayed at the same level then he certainly has a great chance at making it out of this group, but it's hard to say how much being a full time student has affected his play. In any case, if Polt makes it through, I'm sure Americans would be forgiven for temporarily adopting him.

Ryung: The ace of Axiom, Ryung, is the last Terran in this group, and quite possibly the best TvT player out of them all. While he first came to light as an extreme TvT specialist, he spent much of 2012 showing that he had great all-around skill as well. Even so, TvT rightfully remains his most famous match-up, and you could say that at worst he has a 50/50 chance against any Terran player in the world.

While he's been doing well in GSTL, even performing a 3-kill on Terran-heavy Prime, he more recently lost to the revitalized Supernova. He also lost to Suppy in the Ro32, and only got through by beating on HelloKitty and his telegraphed all-ins. With just TvT to play in a three man group, it's Ryung's opportunity to really dazzle the WCS America viewers with a huge display of skill.

Outlook and Predictions

Alive starts this group out with a 1-0 lead with the forfeit win over viOLet, which means he’s straight into the winner’s match and a single Bo3 away from the Ro8. The series between Ryung and Polt could go either way, and once again due to viOLet’s absence, the player that loses this match goes straight to the final match so it isn’t a huge deal if one of them loses early on, they just have to compose themselves and perform better later in the evening.

aLive > ViOLet
Polt > Ryung
Polt > aLive
Ryung > ViOLet
Ryung > aLive

Polt and Ryung advance.


[Editor's note: The writer must really hate aLive]