WCS America - Season 3

Ro32: Group F Recap
Oz and Apocalypse advance

Ro32: Group B Preview
Jaedong, TheStC, Nestea, ViBE

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch.TV

Oz and Apocalypse advance to Ro16

In the end, Evil Geniuses were unable to cancel the Apocalypse, as the two Koreans EG.Oz and lvD.Apocalypse made it through at the expense of foreigner fan favorites EG.Suppy and EG.DeMusliM.

Though Oz's form had been questioned due to a mediocre performance at DreamHack Bucharest where he lost to number of foreigners, he was able to advance in first place from his WCS AM group with wins over Suppy and Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Apocalypse managed to advance through on the slimmest of margins, winning or losing every series by a 2 - 1 scoreline.


Besides the elimination of foreign hopes, cheese was a big subplot on the night. Demuslim took the brunt of the beating, suffering against Suppy's 6 pool and baneling busts, alongside Apocalypse's reaper tactics. The final advancement between Suppy and Apocalypse was also decided by an early attack, as Apocalypse went for a bizarre but effective SCV-hellion-banshee attack early to roast Suppy's drones and gain an advantage he never let go of.

Ro32 Group B Preview

EG.Jaedong, coL.TheStC, ROOT.ViBE, IM_NesTea

by Waxangel

It's not easy to be ROOT.ViBE, our 2012 WCS America Champion. In season one of 2013's WCS, he got grouped up with TheStC, Snute, and theognis—one of the more difficult groups considering the Korean invasion had yet to get going in full force. In season two, he was the sacrificial lamb in a group with Oz, Scarlett, and HerO.

Now, in his third season, things have gotten even worse as he is the only foreigner to be placed in a three-Korean group. Even worse, ViBE's ZvZ has been by far his worst match-up in HotS with just a 7 - 20 record, meaning his chances of taking advantage of the volatile Zerg mirror are slim. What can we say? WCS America seems to hates the American champion.

So, not surprisingly, we're looking at three Koreans as our main candidates to advance to the Ro16. First off, let's look at ViBE's initial opponent in the newlywed IM_NesTea. As with any legendary player it's tempting to just talk about Nestea's incredible resume, his intelligence, and his multiple clutch performances. But to be honest, much like ViBE, he's last year's champion. Well, last-last year's champion to be more specific. "Washed up" would be too severe a term—it's more like Nestea's fallen to the middle of the pack of all these Koreans invading WCS America. On a good day he can all-kill NS HoSeo in GSTL, and on a bad day he's going 0 - 4 to Ryung and Jim to be eliminated from Premier League. Nestea's advancement depends on which version of Nestea shows up.

Meanwhile, coL.TheStC makes a good darkhorse candidate to advance. While he's in a difficult group, he at least has the very important advantage of being able to prepare for just one single race. It will have made his practice that much more efficient, and he will definitely have some map specific tricks up his sleeve. The problem is that TheStC has had a lot of trouble beating Korean-tier Zergs in the TvZ match-up (stats on Aligulac), so even the most focused practice might not be enough. Perhaps he should consider cheese to light the way?

Finally, we have the King Kong EG.Jaedong. Repeatedly bashing his head against foreign tournaments has really paid off, and he's developed at an alarming pace into one of the best Zergs in the world. There is an interesting catch, however. While he's made 180 on his previous horrendous ZvP, it seems like it has come at the cost of some of his ZvT ability.

Will it really matter in THIS group? Probably not. As we said, TheStC isn't that good a TvZ player, and Jaedong's ZvZ still looks very strong. Though not a lock, Jaedong is a very strong favorite to advance. The ZvT issues are more a question for another day—after losing 0 - 4 to Polt and Bomber, how is he going to fare against the Terran players he might face in the Ro16 and beyond?

Predictions:

Jaedong > TheStC
Nestea > ViBE
Jaedong > Nestea
TheStC > ViBE
TheStC > Nestea

Jaedong and TheStC advance.

Writers: WaxAngel
Photos: GHOSTCLAW
Editor: Waxangel.