WCS America - Season II

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by Zealously

For a player like EG.Jaedong, a Brood War legend, a solid SC2 Proleague player, and multiple podium finisher at international tournaments, one would think that the WCS America Challenger League would have been a piece of cake. A walk in the park. A pre-nerf hellbat drop against a player without a minimap. Little more than a warm-up before he entered the WCS America Premier League.

Unfortunately for the five time Brood War champ, and double DreamHack runner-up, the night was dark and full of Terrans. In the season 1 Premier League qualifier back in April, he hit teammate EG.DeMusliM.RC and suffered a 0 - 2 loss that dashed his hopes of competing in the Premier League, forcing him to deal with the shame of playing Challenger League for a season.

Oof, maybe it was just bad luck? Jaedong would get another chance to prove his TvZ prowess as he was matched up against the mostly unheralded American Terran ROOT.theognis in his very first Challenger League match. At that point, Jaedong's ZvP was still very much in question, but his TvZ looked strong after he took out Gumiho in a convincing 2 - 0 series at DreamHack Stockholm. It seemed like there was only one way the meeting could end: with the Tyrant crushing theognis beneath his boot heal.

Instead, theognis refused to be cowed in the presence of the legendary Zerg, winning a 2 - 0 victory in a couple of fairly straight up macro games (theognis would later be rewarded for his good deeds by receiving a walkover against Sen and qualifying for the Premier League).

Had this happened in WCS Korea, Jaedong would have been kicked straight out of the tournament and given Flash something to chuckle about. But luckily for him, WCS America has a different format and comes with a lifeline – automatic entry into the 'group' phase. Err, the system is kind of convoluted, so here's the simple explaination: all the Challenger League players who miss out on their first shot at getting into the Premier League are grouped together in a second round for a final try at it.

Put into a group with Ian, Drunkenboi and Jim, Jaedong got an easy first match as he got to play his best match-up of ZvZ against Yoe.Ian. But, because nothing is ever easy, his 2 - 0 win against Ian only earned him a match against the Chinese powerhouse iG.Jim. Rumors of Jaedong's poor ZvP had not been exaggerated, and he suffered a painful 0 - 2 loss to Jim.

As if the group had been designed to test Jaedong in every way possible, Jaedong had to play yet another match-up with the his last chance of getting a WCS Premier League spot on the line. While FXO.Drunkenboi would be Jaedong's easiest opponent yet on paper, his earlier losses to theognis and Demuslim left some room for doubt as to whether or not he was up to the challenge. Jaedong took the first game, looking decent but not great, but the Canadian Drunkenboi tied the series in the second match by stifling Jaedong's signature mutalisks with good marine play.

One game away from facing some serious humiliation, Jaedong managed to keep his calm and clinched the final game by holding off Drunkenboi's hellbat drops and following hellbat-marauder timing. It wasn't the prettiest game, but it wasn't like Jaedong had played many pretty games in WCS anyway. What mattered was that even though he had been bloodied and battered, he had finally reached the Premier League.

As Jaedong heads into his Premier League Ro32 group against Snute, puCK, and MacSed, one has to worry if he is just going to fall right back down to Challenger League. It's true that Jaedong has been quietly improving with every passing week, and the Jaedong we saw in June is quite different from the one we saw in May, and the Jaedong of the present is much better still. Two high DreamHack finishes are a testament to that.

Even so, Jaedong is still prone to making comically un-clutch errors, and his understanding of the game seems lacking compared to the pros who have been playing for far longer. But besides that, the biggest factor for Jaedong might be that he is playing online. All of his Challenger League failures have come in online matches, and while Jaedong has improved in live play, he has yet to prove himself when playing online.

With all the troubles the Tyrant had to go through to reach Premier League, one must hope that he doesn't fall out before the Round of 8 this season, or the terrifying foreigner hitmen might come for him in the Challenger League once more. And even if he does make it through... ...well, I'm sure theognis and DeMusliM will be more than happy to face him again.

Writers: Zealously.
Graphics: Pathy.
Photos: R1CH and Silverfire.
Editor: Waxangel.