You had to see it coming, even if you really, really hoped it wouldn't happen. WCS America no longer has any 'American' players. A brutal Ro16 draw saw both EG.Suppy.RC and Acer.Scarlett, hailing from the USA and Canada, placed into the same group as two Korean players. And as tends to be in those situations, the Koreans won.
Given Liquid`HerO's form as of late, it was hard not to see him advance from this group. With an all-kill over European giants mousesports in the Acer TeamStory Cup and a three-kill over Samsung Khan in the Proleague, the Liquid Protoss had both skill and momentum going his way. Even so, Scarlett gave him some conundrums in his initial series, confounding him with swarm hosts and her trademark super-creep spread. However, she could not overcome his sometimes unorthodox compositions, and surrendered the series 0 - 2.
Next up for HerO was Evil Geniuses' Suppy, who he defeated in a much more straight-forward series.. Suppy quickly GG'd out against an unexpected blink stalker timing in game one. That was followed by a game two loss as his roach-hydra-viper combination melted against stalkers, colossi, and templars. With HerO through in first, that left the three Zergs to fight it out in mirrors for the last spot.
EG.Revival.RC had started the night by losing his first match to teammate Suppy, getting outmaneuvered and outplayed in the returned roach-hydra-infestor wars which are infinitely preferable to muta vs. muta. However, much like his Ro32 group where he began with a loss to Goswser, Revival recovered from his early setback and put in two powerful ZvZ performances to cinch his spot in the next round.
His losers' match games against Scarlett ended up being a bit unusual, at least from the Canadian's end. Scarlett went from using mutas + mass speedbanes, to rushing toward ultralisks with varied degrees of success. Ultimately it wasn't enough to take on Revival's more orthodox way of playing, and roach-hydra saw him to a 2 - 1 victory.
In the rematch, and final match of the night against Suppy, Revival got the last laugh and avenged his earlier loss. In a 2 - 0 victory, Revival out-dueled Suppy in roach-hydra-infestor wars twice in a row, eliminating his teammate and earning a personal best Ro8 spot for himself.
All the best to the rest
Acer.Scarlett It seemed like Scarlett was on the verge of causing HerO some serious problems, but somehow the games didn't really play out that difficultly for him. Scarlett at least entertained us in ZvZ by doing things that weren't roach-hydra OR mass muta, showing us fast ultralisks and some mass mid-game baneling play.
EG.Suppy.RC: Suppy suffered Goswser's fate, defeating Revival in the first series but losing to him in the fatal, final series of the night. He explained his losses by saying: "I underdroned in the first game, and overdroned in the second." Ever since the days of Brood War, ZvZ has often boiled down to something that simple.
Premier League Ro16: Group D Preview
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.
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
He is right though. I cant envison any player from the Americas winning a big tournament anytime soon :/
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
He is right though. I cant envison any player from the Americas winning a big tournament anytime soon :/
American players beat Korean plays all the time. I personally don't care if American players win or lose, I just don't see why everyone needs to go to that argument. I don't think most players can touch Hero, I mean look at what he did in proleague in that TvP recently.. Proxy 2 nexus.
There really isn't that many godly players right now anyways, maybe a handful.
Theogns 2-0 jaedong for gods sake.
I do feel bad for suppy though, that was a pretty brutal way to get knocked out.
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
did you even watch the games to say scarlet vs hero was really close? LOL
[Editor's note: The writer must really hate aLive]
Unfortunately for Alive, he's found himself in a group with 2 tvt masters. His tvt isn't bad either, probably being his best matchup, but probably not enough to advance from this group.
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
He is right though. I cant envison any player from the Americas winning a big tournament anytime soon :/
American players beat Korean plays all the time. I personally don't care if American players win or lose, I just don't see why everyone needs to go to that argument. I don't think most players can touch Hero, I mean look at what he did in proleague in that TvP recently.. Proxy 2 nexus.
There really isn't that many godly players right now anyways, maybe a handful.
Theogns 2-0 jaedong for gods sake.
I do feel bad for suppy though, that was a pretty brutal way to get knocked out.
Taking games or even series from koreas is pretty fucking far from winning a big tournament.
In SC2 most pros are capable of taking games of anyone.
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
He is right though. I cant envison any player from the Americas winning a big tournament anytime soon :/
Well to be frank i can't envision anyone other then koreans winning a big tournament , unless only third tear koreans play in it , then top foreigners have a chance .
On May 24 2013 04:30 Demberks wrote: So this means that there are only Koreans left in the "American qualifier"?.. Oh the irony..
Moonglade and Snute are still in--the rest are koreans though. 6 Koreans 2 non-koreans isn't that bad tbh, that's the type of ratio we normally see!
Yeah, but still.. This is an AMERICAN Qualifier and still I see no Americans in there, not anymore at least. This should be fixed to next season.
Get over the semantics because it's rubbish. The American/European/Korean thing in the title means nothing. There aren't regions. Blizzard made it that way and you shouldn't treat them as such. Every player has the right to play in whatever qualifier they want so don't read too much in the names. Seriously end the xenophobia when there is no reason for it. It's just another qualifier like MLG Anaheim, DH Stockholm, etc. The players have every right to earn points and get a seed where ever the heck they want. The system shouldn't be compared to the one like last year.
On May 24 2013 04:52 iKnowKungFu wrote: this only proves that americans cant compete with koreans
How does this prove this at all?
I'm so tired of the Korean argument, quit generalizing things and start talking about individuals. The games of scarlet and hero were really close, and suppy beat revival in one series...
The best anti-argument are better North-American results, of which when pooled with Korean players, there haven't been.
They are great players, but their priority sets are different and hence not nearly as strong as the Korean. I mean, Suppy goes to University no?
Being a "pro" gamer just isnt the same for most foreign players. Instead of relying on results, the rely on streaming more than not and their practice time is stifled by commitments (like university) to future projects rather than simply the current (starcraft2).
Player's reactions to Ro8 bracket (or rather, my reaction if i were them XD ) : Revival (vs Snute): im solid vs zerg, and he's not korean. looks good. Snute (vs Revival): i beat the creator of the universe in zvz, i got this. Crank (vs Alive): NOT A TEAMMATE YAY (go phillies) Alive (vs Crank): ....ok... Moonglade (vs Ryung): ehhh not a zerg so thats good i guess... Ryung (vs Moonglade): haha sweet... >=D Hero (vs Alicia): pvp... -_- Alicia (vs Hero): pvp... -_-
EPT
HerO 
Scarlett
EG.aLive.RC, 
HerO vs 
Polt Ro8 match. 
