EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SonuvBob/banners/survivor14th_pachi.jpg)
image courtesy of Pachi
14th MBCgame Survivor Tournament Group B
12 February 2008, 1400 KST/2200PST previous day @ MBCGame
We'll be doing things a little differently this week, to test some new formats out. Same as last week - top two advance, bottom two drop to offlines. Four players, four teams, three different races. Let's go!
Meet the Players:
![[image loading]](http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5613/hwasinfaketw4.jpg)
Hwasin – STX’s premiere player, he came into his own a year ago where, in the GomTV MSL Season 1, he took sAviOr out to five games. One of the few Terrans – or even progamers – to do so, he proved he possessed masterful TvZ despite his loss.From the springboard of his vs. Zerg play (earning him the epithet of ‘Red Sniper’), he catapulted into serious ProLeague, MSL, and OSL contention in all matchups. While he was eliminated 0-2 against a fiery-hot Flash, expect great things from him in the future.
![[image loading]](http://www.nassaulibrary.org/centreblog/200px-Zerg.jpg)
Thezerg – Uh… who? The whole ZergMan ZergBoy ZergbOng TamponZerg thing always confused me, and now we have a Zerg player who just calls himself “The Zerg”. Goddamnit. Of little significance, he has seen only 8 individual games in his entire career. He advances to Survivor from offlines, where he went 2-0 over inter.Young, 2-1 over by.Heng, and 2-1 over Hyuk. Not exactly the toughest of all brackets.Primarily used by MBC as half of a 2v2 card, he and his 1v1 abilities have gone relatively unnoticed. With a rather abysmal 37.50% win record, it’s hard to give him much of a chance in this rather stacked group. Still, many of the best (Reach, sAviOr, Bisu) originally came from teamplay ranks.
![[image loading]](http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1381/xellos4pd.jpg)
oh god that sexiness overwhelms the senses
XellOs – Everyone’s favorite DDR Terran returns to Survivor after elimination in the group stages where he, along with most of the other seeds, suffered an ignominious 0-2 exit. Yet as an OSL Champion with amazing dedication to practice (especially ‘night work’), you cannot discount him.For over a year he languished, underperforming for a progamer of his name value. Yet in Gom Season 3 he decided to stop DDRing and start SCing, resulting in a respectable semifinal finish, dropping against Bisu. Combined with his accession to Bacchus OSL, it appears that XellOs is once again on the radar.
![[image loading]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/e/ed/300px-GustaveDoreParadiseLostSatanProfile.jpg)
LuCifer – One of the new KTF Protosses along with Violet and Tempest, he passed MBC offlines 2-0 over By.Cozy, 2-1 over BeSt[hyO], and 2-1 over Sheis. His 4-6 record speaks of mediocrity, but it may be just a newcomer’s nerves. His play – especially with reavers and DTs – shows occasional gleams of genius, as in his massive minedaebak vs. Sheis on Desperado.A great source of confusion is the name-sharing between him and Flash – both on the same team, both called Lee Young Ho [Where is Chibi when you need him?]. While Flash has been the more successful juvenile prostitute so far, Lucifer is looking to make his own name heard.
The Games
Hwasin < Loki II > Thezerg“Only a zerg, only a zerg”
– STX_HwaSIn, before defeating ‘Ma Bonjwa’ in group stages of GOMTV1.
This motto is especially applicable here, judging by the handles of the respective progamers. Thezerg will either opt for an all-in play or ultralisk rush, but HwaSIn will know this and prepare accordingly. I see him going with some sort of safe FE into a macro win.
Hwasin is 65% vs Zerg. TheZerg is 20% vs Terran. Enough said.
A most curious match. XellOs does not appear to be very confident on this map – despite saying he had a special build prepared against Bisu, the ‘special build’ turned out to be a massively failed Deep Six. Storms tore apart all his infantry and from then on it was a cakewalk for the eventual finalist.
Lucifer is also winless on Loki, dropping against the Dark Sorcerer Super Terran Light [Who the hell comes up with these nicknames anyways]. I expect him to do the patented KTF reaver-into-carrier build, after which it will be incumbent on XellOs to stop him before 3 star carriers get going and the going gets tough.
While normally I’d give it to XellOs on experience, the fact that he is a mere 4/10 in his recent TvPs reduces my confidence. I’m still going with Perfection, but not with any sort of surety.
Winners’/Losers’ Games
< Zodiac >
If
Hwasin vs XellOs: XellOs to win. His TvT was once the best in progaming. While Hwasin has shown improvements in TvT, his 0-2 loss from Flash may have detracted from his confidence (and he seems to be a somewhat streaky player)If
Hwasin vs LuCifer: Hwasin to win. His games against Bisu last MSL were quite insane, especially the third game on this map. Bisu pulled out all the stops to beat Hwasin in that final set, but I don’t think Lucifer’s PvT is on the same level as Taekyong.If
Thezerg vs XellOs: XellOs to win. I just don’t see TheZerg getting that lucky against two TvZ monsters twice in a row. Plus, Zodiac is 70.6% T>Z, giving XellOs an even larger advantage. Just don’t DDR, XellOs.If
Thezerg vs LuCifer: Lucifer to win. Both of them won in the matchup to get to MST, but I think Lucifer’s win over Cozy is more significant than TheZerg’s win over inter.Young. Just a hunch though – they’re both unknown enough so that it could really go any which way.Not going to list the possibilities here because anything is possible. However, if my predictions hold, Hwasin will be facing Lucifer, in which case I think Hwasin will take it. His first set against Bisu on Blue Storm was quite the tour de force. That three-base tank heavy push didn’t even need siege mode, it just iloveooved Bisu. It will iloveoov Lucifer as well.
Prediction:
XellOs and Hwasin to advance.So I did it a bit differently this week. Like? Don't like? Questions? Comments? All feedback welcomed.
Love and Luck,
LR
He was an OSL winner before there were even televised 2v2 games. Overall, good job, but I just had to say something about that.
