WCS Europe Season 3

Ro16 Group D Recap
MMA and duckdeok Advance

Ro8 Bracket

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Youtube

MMA and duckdeok Advance

by Premasiri

By the numbers – everything went as expected in group D as Acer.MMA advanced in first place, followed closely into the round of 8 by MVP.Duckdeok.

Ro16 - Group D
1.	MMA	2-0 (4-1)
2.	duckdeok	2-1 (5-3)
3.	TitaN	1-2 (3-4)
4.	Starbuck	0-2 (0-4)

Detailed results from the live report thread by HammerKick
+ Show Spoiler +

MMA vs Starbuck
MMA <Yeonsu> Starbuck
MMA <Bel'Shir Vestige> Starbuck
MMA <> Starbuck

MMA wins 2-0!

TitaN vs duckdeok
TitaN <Whirlwind> duckdeok
TitaN <Bel'Shir Vestige> duckdeok
TitaN <Polar Night> duckdeok

duckdeok wins 2-1!

Winners' Match
MMA <Derelict Watcher> duckdeok
MMA <Yeonsu> duckdeok
MMA <Frost> duckdeok

MMA wins 2-1 and advances to the Round of 8!

Losers' Match
Starbuck <Akilon Wastes> TitaN
Starbuck <Yeonsu> TitaN
Starbuck <> TitaN

TitaN wins 2-0!
Starbuck falls out of the Premier League.

Final Match
duckdeok <Bel'Shir Vestige> TitaN
duckdeok <Yeonsu> TitaN
duckdeok <> TitaN

duckdeok wins 2-0!

---

MMA and duckdeok advance to WCS EU Premier Ro8!

MMA – Convincing
For all the many MMA fans eagerly hoping for the Acer Ace to claim his second Blizzcon title, the dream lives on. Continuing his recent resurgence over the past few months, the Korean Terran advanced in first place out of the group, but it was his style of play that lends the most strength to his title contention in the upcoming season finals. It was the confident, aggressive and tempo-controlling MMA that showed up to pick apart Starbuck’s early game, and a similar 2:1 over the far more known and feared duckdeok in TvP will stand him in good stead against the 4 Protoss he could face in the elimination rounds. He gets a pass first up, though, as he will be going up against Nerchio in the round of 8. MMA didn’t look untouchable here, but he looked just as strong as he’s shown he can be over the last few months, and looks to be right up there with the other contenders for the title; Stardust, MC and Genius.

Starbuck – Call it nerves
There was no question who the underdog in Group D was. As the sole representative of his country in WCS so far, and at the tender age of 16 to boot, no one is going to to point too many fingers that Starbuck fell at the round of 16 in this season’s WCS. One could say he drew a bad group with defending champion duckdeok and resurgent legend MMA, but to be frank, no groups in the round of 16 are soft. Rather, it’s perhaps best to say he came in here with no expectations, and he didn’t disappoint any. Against both his opponents he wasn’t able to deliver as confident play as he did in the round of 32. Against MMA, his shaky play was knocked over by the kind of hellion harass a Zerg expects to deal with in nine out of ten ZvT ladder games. But this is the biggest stage Starbuck’s been on, and what’s important is he put himself on the map purely by getting to the round of 16 at all, eliminating notable players along the way such as Lucifron and Grubby, not to mention his drone-drilling destruction of Genius on the way to Premier league this season. Starbuck can go away proud of his progress this season even with a 0-4 scoresheet in group D, and know that there’s always next season.

Duckdeok – Still hard to tell if he’s got what it takes to do it again
Duckdeok was fortunate with last season’s bracket, no two ways about it. I wouldn’t call his PvP a crutch, but getting so many matches in his strongest matchup on the way to the grand finals certainly helped the Korean Protoss. In tonight’s matches duckdeok showed an unloosened grip on how to play PvP - when to attack (taking his first game of the night with a classic “you’ve harassed me enough now, time to gg push” against Titan on Whirlwind), when to defend (most notably not going for the all too common follow-up all in after holding off DTs against Titan on Polar Night), and always somehow making the best of whatever build-order situation he finds himself in. With Genius his first opponent in the round of 8 and MC a likely semifinal opponent, chances are fair that duckdeok can keep riding the brackets once again, but a 1:2 loss to MMA tonight shows exactly what could happen if he runs into a competent Terran or Zerg.

Titan – Cute and clever, but not quite the whole package
Some top players can be criticized for being too passive (though admittedly less and less in the increasingly dynamic HotS meta). On the other hand, I felt like Titan’s play tonight was too harassment oriented, too considered, even too cute. Some quirky, aggressive plays (especially the one-gate proxy into double-gas void ray before additional gateways that saw him close out the night 0:2 to duckdeok) were just barely not enough to take games, and it feels like against players of this caliber, Titan needs to take a few less risks. His warp prism harassment was ever-present in the games he took late against duckdeok, but at the cost of focus elsewhere – his positioning, his overall macro, and his army compositions. The understanding is clearly all there – intelligently handling the scouting informed aggression of duckdeok allowed the Russian Protoss to turn a disadvantage into a victory over duckdeok on Bel’shir Vestige. You get left feeling that with a few less zealots thrown away in mineral lines, a colossus here instead of a replacement warp prism for harass, Titan could have maybe clinched a round of 8 spot. I’m happy he made it this far, because if he’d bowed out in the round of 32, in his own words he’d have quit Starcraft 2 professionally. If Titan wants to finally hit the round of 8 next season, it feels like all he needs to do is not get lost in the details.





We'll have a full round of 8 preview closer to the time. Until then...

Writers: Premasiri
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Banner photo: ESL
Editor: Plexa.