£400 SC2Improve Summer League 2013 - Page 5

Today is a big day for the SC2Improve Summer League as we have amazing news to share with you all. After almost three months of running the Summer League we find ourselves almost at the end of Qualifiers, with only two qualifiers remaining for players to earn points and try to squeeze into the top of the tables to make it into the RO16 of the main event. We've seen multiple great nights of games and many top level players already secure places into the RO16.

So far we consider the event to have been a huge success - but we're only just getting started as we are very proud to announce that the SC2Improve Summer League is now sponsored by ZOWIE GEAR.



This is a great moment for SC2Improve - acquiring our first even sponsorship for an event - and hopefully it is a strong sign of our continued growth and validity as a tournament provider. We cannot thank ZOWIE enough for this opportunity.

The sponsorship by ZOWIE GEAR will provide us with additional prizes to the £400 Prize Pool. They are as follows :

- 1st Place will receive a ZOWIE MiCO
- 2nd Place will receive a ZOWIE G-CM Black
- 3rd Place will receive a ZOWIE P-CM Blue
- a ZOWIE G-CM to be given away during the Finals of the SC2Improve Summer League

We hope you will all join us in thanking ZOWIE GEAR for their support of the SC2Improve Summer League and we hope you will all join us on Monday 12th August 1900 CEST for Qualifier #11 of the SC2Improve Summer League.


ZOWIE GEAR Website
ZOWIE GEAR Twitter
ZOWIE GEAR Facebook

Group C Preview!

Today the RO16 of the Summer League kicks off with Group C. We we're very fortunate when the groups were drawn and ended up with a very balanced set of groups when you look at the races in each, which means we are going to get a great variety of match-ups tonight in our first group!


Tefel vs CPU and Adonminus vs TrOn are the initial matches of the group and will be followed by a winner's match, a loser's match and the final match. So why don't we get things started with the favourite of the group, Tefel?


Tefel is by far the most well known name in tonight's group representing Team Dignitas. Not only does he have many results in online cups and monthly finals but recently he has started taking that experience and skill offline making it to the RO16 in both WCS Premier and Dreamhack recently.

His results say he should win this group, but will that be the case? His first opponent will be CPU, who actually lost to Tefel 0-2 in the middle of August in a GO4SC2 cup. I think this is probably expected as CPU is by no means a weak player, but Tefel is just on another level. In the winner's match Tefel will meet Adonminus or TrOn. If he played against TrOn I think he would again have a fairly easy time as TrOn's TvZ looked weak last time we saw it. Adonminus is a different piece of the puzzle - he is a player who is highly ranked in GM and can take games off of Tefel, despite losing 0-3 to him in the finals of Qualifier #5. But will Adonminus bring a good enough game when it really matters? Will Adonminus even meet Tefel? Let's talk about why I think he will.


Adonminus is probably the second favourite to come out of this group. He is high up in GM on the ladder and his quirky play styles can often catch players off-guard. He demolished TrOn 2-0 last time he met him in a TvP, despite it being TrOn's best match-up. His style relies heavily on defending and heading into a strong late-game army often involving Tempest's, Storm and Collossi. Using a Stargate opening frequently in the match-up we will see whether TrOn has him figured out.

So if all things go as expected we arrive at the Winner's Match with Tefel vs Adonminus. Talking to Adonminus he is extremely confident about his group as he states he has 'been having success vs Tefel on ladder and I beat the other two recently as well'. So can he live up to his words? That's for us to find out. Even if he falls to Tefel I feel the only way he is going to drop out is going to be some spectacular play from either CPU or TrOn who are both going to have to be on top of their game to advance here today.

P.S. Adonminus is the SC2Improve Winter League Champion - so he is pretty desperate to defend his title


TrOn is our Terran representative tonight and is extremely happy about his group in terms of the match-ups. Him and his manager would agree that TvP is by far his best match-up, an uncommon thing to hear for Terran players nowadays. Recent statistics show that the PvT win-rate is 57% for Protoss players, but TrOn doesn't pay much attention to this. His safe and standard opening with a Reaper into 1/1/1 gives him early game safety as well as a solid foundation to macro from.

He is also used to high-pressure situations being the ace player for his team, The Dead Generation. So can all his practice pay off for him here today? Will his TvP carry him through or will he sadly fall a stage before where he finished in the SC2Improve Winter League when he lost in the Quarter-finals? Tonight we find out.


So will CPU be on top of his game? He is a player who frequently made it to the RO16 and RO8 of the Qualifiers and just scraped through into the RO16 of the main event with a good performance in the final Qualifier. Sadly I have to say I feel CPU is the real underdog in this group. Tefel is a well-known and great player, Adonminus a not so well-know but still fantastic player and then TrOn who has a TvP which is levels above his TvT and TvZ. Can CPU cause an upset? Because he may have to cause two to make it to the RO8.

Predictions

Tefel 2 - 0 CPU
Adonminus 2 - 1 TrOn
Tefel 2 - 1 Adonminus
CPU 1 - 2 TrOn
Adonminus 2 - 0 TrOn


Aligulac Prediction


Estimated by Aligulac. Modify.



Tonight is going to be a great set of games and I couldn't think of a better way to get the RO16 started! See you all at 1900 CEST at http://twitch.tv/wardiii !! Don't forget to share your opinion with us over on our Twitter and Facebook with #SC2ISL !

Group D Preview!
Tune in at http://twitch.tv/wardiii from 1900 CEST

Satiini vs Sabre
Noname vs JackO
Winner's Match
Loser's Match
Final Match

On Monday we saw Tefel and Adonminus advance from Group C in a set of great games. Tonight we will see which two players will be the next to join them in the RO8!

Satiini is going to be tonight's player who everybody knows and should be feeling fairly confident of coming out of this group in at least second place. He is well known for being a strong player in online cups and we saw why when he qualified into the RO16 when he beat Adonminus and TrOn - two players who we know are very good - in the Season 2 Finals.

Recently we haven't heard quite so much of Satiini, but his level of play should definitely be enough to make him one of the favourites to come out of tonight's group. Expect standard and straight up play from him as he will look to simply outshine his opponents mechanically.


Tonight may end up as a bit of a Terran sweep as we have WCS EU Premier League RO32 player Noname as the second Terran in this group. Another player who plays in a lot of weekly and online cups and somebody who very few people know about. His recent performance (getting to WCS RO32) will put him as a favourite for this group next to Satiini and first place in the group will most likely come down to a BO3 in the Winner's Match between these two players.

Noname played some great games against MVP and despite losing the series he was definitely able to get into very good positions, but a mixture of nerves and possibly inexperience cost him his advantage. These nerves shouldn't be an issue for him here, a much lower-key event which he should be expecting to make the RO8 of very easily.


JackO is the first of tonights under-dogs. He is a Protoss player from Luxembourg putting in a lot of time to practicing while studying at University. He is one of these players who nobody will deny is good, but is he good enough? He made it here through a lot of consistency in Qualifier's where he made it to the RO16 and RO8 frequently - but he was never really able to go any further and the list of players he took out on his way is by no means weak, but it isn't like he was causing upsets left right and centre either.

Having joined ESC just yesterday after his previous team CPLAY merged JackO will be looking to take a series wherever possible. Maybe he can use the PvT 'imbalance' to show us a surprise against Noname, if not then expect him to probably be battling it with out underdog in the loser's match to finish 9th-12th, compared to his SC2Improve Winter League 2012/2013 finish of 13-16th after going 0-4 in his RO16 Group.


And who is this other underdog? Well that would be Sabre from Team SC2Improve. Out of all the people from my own team who I thought might be able to qualify when the Summer League started I definitely did not expect Sabre to be the one person who would be able to make it and represent us in our own tournament. But over time he has definitely grown a lot stronger as a player and very similarly to JackO consistently has good runs through the Qualifiers.

This being said he is a player who hits RO16 in the Qualifier every time and then just loses, and he qualified with almost half the qualification points of JackO. It's going to be interesting and if things go as expected I expect Sabre and JackO to be fighting for that third place in the group in the Loser's Match - for dignity if nothing else.


Predictions

Satiini 2 - 0 Sabre
Noname 2 - 1 JackO
Satiini 1 - 2 Noname
Sabre 1 - 2 JackO
Satiini 2 - 0 JackO

Aligulac Prediction
Note this is possibly a pretty inaccurate group as all four players lack having a lot of data present.


Estimated by Aligulac. Modify.