by Waxangel

July 22: Group B – Nv.mOOnGLaDe, CMStorm_Polt, Liquid`TaeJa, iG.XY

It's pretty clear who the favorites are here. Polt and TaeJa are two of the most successful Korean Terran players in history, and they have a good record of raiding foreign tournaments for prize money. However, they do have to face each other to start the group, so there is the lingering possibility that one of them won't be able to make it to the Ro16.

mOOnGLaDe showed he had really strong ZvT last season by defeating both Apocalypse and TheStC, but it's safe to say that TaeJa and Polt are on another level still. However, with just one race to prepare for, mOOnGLaDe does have an outside chance if he can play at his highest level.

Finally, there's XY, who had the weakest showing of the Chinese progamers to advance from the Challenger League, making it out of a three man group where he only had to beat Capoch (IdrA forfeited the group due to retirement). Although the Chinese players have been surprisingly strong so far, this group doesn't offer XY a good chance to advance.

Prediction: Polt and TaeJa advance


July 23: Group D – Liquid`Snute, ROOTpuCK, iG.MacSed, EG.Jaedong

This is one of the more difficult groups to predict. Jaedong looks strong as he comes in with back-to-back second place finishes at DreamHack, but he has to confront his inner ZvP demons once more. While he did manage to get revenge on Stardust at DreamHack Valencia, he did give up one seriously hilarious comeback win that allows us to keep mocking his ZvP for at least another few weeks.

MacSed and Snute both have strong cases to be called the favorites as well. MacSed performed very well through the qualifiers and Challenger League, beating players like qxc, JYP, TheStC, and Goswser along the way. Meanwhile, Snute comes in off a top eight finish in the last WCS Premier Season, and a really narrow 3 - 4 loss to TaeJa in the HSC7 grand finals. Either player could top the group if they are playing well on the night.

puCK will probably lose due to being American, but seeing as how teammate Minigun managed to make it through last week, we have to say there's at least a chance. The PvP against MacSed should be pretty even, and after that puCK can pray for a classic JvP throw. If puCK can't beat Jaedong, theognis is obliged to provide endless mockery. God, it was annoying to write this paragraph without using pronouns.

Prediction: Snute and MacSed advance


July 24: Group F – EG.aLive, ROOTtheognis, ROOTSage, EG.Suppy

It's basically aLive's entire purpose in progaming to eliminate more popular players with his incredibly dull, sterile, but effective play, so I can't see him not advancing in this group. aLive getting eliminated would imply that the StarCraft II gods are kind, but we all know that they're really just sadistic and whimsical assholes. Expect aLive to cheese out Suppy and then win against Sage in a dreadfully standard series.

So, who will take second place then? Sage looks like the favorite since he happens to be Korean and all, but let's not count out the two Americans here. Suppy has a sneaky penchant for causing upsets, and he was able to defeat Ryung, Heart, and Scarlett in the previous WCS America tournament. As for theognis, he's a bit lucky to be here due to getting a walkover against Sen in Challenger League, but he also happened to 2 - 0 Jaedong and 2 - 1 State before that. Alright, now that the Americans have been given their token kind words, it's time to predict the Koreans to advance.

Prediction: aLive and Sage advance


July 25: Group H – AX.CranK, EG.DeMusliM, EG.HuK, coL.TheStC

There's an unfortunate 'team-kill' between two friends in Crank and TheStC to start this group, with the two players being known to practice with each other despite being on different teams. If the two Koreans had started on opposite sides of the bracket I'd say they'd be the favorites to go through together, but this situation is a bit more precarious.

While hating on HuK will never go out of fashion, even the worst anti-fans will have to admit that HuK's been doing fairly well over the last few months. It's not just that HuK has been placing Ro16 at DreamHacks and hanging with skilled European pros, but that he's showing some semblance of consistency for the first time in what seems like forever. While being in a two Korean group makes things difficult, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see him take wins off Demuslim and Crank to reach the Ro16.

On the flipside, I can already see the /r/starcraft posts calling Demuslim an overrated newb who should retire if he should get eliminated. With iNcontrol successfully reinventing his image, IdrA retiring, and HuK performing reasonably well as of late, I fear that Demuslim could be in danger of becoming the SC community's next EG punching bag. Man, I hope he gets through.

Prediction: TheStC and HuK advance