IEM Global Challenge
New York 2013

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The Group Stage


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Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

The Group Stage

by Stuchiu

Group A: Zest, HyuN, TLO, Life

KT_Zest: The artist formerly known as P7GAB formerly known as Wooki

Zest, the Wooki covered in blood. That's what we see him as, at least from his series of name changes (ask a BW fan what "P7GAB" means). Alongside Stats, he was one of Flash's invaluable lieutenants in Proleague, crucial in bringing KT Rolster to their third place finish. Though he didn't receive much spotlight in Proleague, his 29-17 record easily made him one of the top seven players from last season (7th in wins, 5th in win rate among players with 20+ games).

Alas, Wooki is also similar to him teammate Stats in that he hasn't been able to bring his Proleague prowess to individual leagues and is still stuck in Code B. He has barely had a chance to show his skills after Proleague ended, and it is hard to gauge exactly how strong he is now. If you just look at his run through the KR/Asia qualifiers for IEM, three things stand out. He beat Jaedong in his new ultimate ZvP form, he beat Innovation, and he is really good at PvP (not surprising since he comes from PvProleague). He may be severely overshadowed in terms of name value, but you can't help but feel that he could be one of the best players in the tournament.

Quantc_HyuN: - Pants so majestic, they took over shirts.

With Polt being unable to attend IEM NY the next spot available was given to Hyun. And isn't it just fitting? Hyun is in many ways the perfect substitute. Hyun is Polt's old TSL teammate (A team that continually sends love letters to each other over twitter). Hyun also got second to Polt at the last MLG, making him an appropriate fill-in for the American champ. And who better to be given this chance to fight for more precious valuable WCS points than the player who already clawed his way into the top 30 through non-WCS tournaments alone?

Liquid`TLO: The token EU Zerg

It's not a major international tournament without at least one EU Zerg finding his way into the middle of a pack of bloodthirsty Koreans. With Stephano stepping down from his throne, many pointed to players such as VortiX, TLO or Snute to take up the mantle of best Zerg in Europe. And for a few months in early summer, TLO seemed like he might actually reach the head of the EU Zerg pack as he continued to record better and better results. However, he hasn't been able to maintain that level of performance and has leveled off at being one of the many strong Zergs in Europe. While no European can be favored to make it out of a three-Korean group, the fact that it's a three Zerg group does offer an interesting wrinkle.

ST_Life: Mirror mirror

After his initial burst of brilliance at the beginning of HotS, Life’s momentum has slowed down. Part of that was due to bad luck, and part of it was due to lack of motivation. But mostly it was because of Zergs. ZvZ has gone from being Life's strongest match-up in WoL to the bane of his existence in HotS. While he can still hang in there with Code S Zergs, he's still going to lose a bo3 series more often than not.

Because of that glaring weakness of his, Life’s chances in IEM just got a whole lot harder. He will be going into a group with two Zergs already in it, although he gets a reprieve by getting to face Zest in his first match. HyuN and even TLO are capable of beating Life in a ZvZ, especially when you consider the fact that Life has shown two series of ZvZs against both DRG and Sasquatch this tournament (both giving good information about how he plays macro games and how he cheeses).

If Life wants a chance to make it to the bracket he will have to do what he hasn’t in a long time and go into that championship zone. That strange ability that players like Mvp, MC, and Taeja have been able to harness at times, winning for seemingly no other reason than because they are willing it. It's what let him come back from three down against DRG at Iron Squid, and allowed him to crush Mvp and Leenock in game sevens. Unless that old Life returns, he has no chance even if he does get out of this deadly group.

Group B: NaNiwa, HerO, qxc, Hack

Alliance.NaNiwa: Barely tolerating everything

NaNiwa is in many ways the opposite of Stephano, the other great foreigner hope. Stephano doesn't particularly need practice. He doesn’t need good conditions. He can go drink, wake up, get on a plane, lose his keyboard and mouse, get to the lan and then win the tournament. Because for Stephano there is an almost inhuman sense of detachment to how he plays. If one doesn't care about anything, then one is immune to everything.

For Naniwa, everything seems to matter. Is the sound right? How high is my seat? Do I have a decent grasp on the current state of this match-up? It's part of being a player that allows the game to consume him in every way, one who tolerated months in Korea because his practice server needed to be just perfect. Even his outbursts against other players might just be a reflection of a player who cares too much about the game, for better or for worse. He must win, he must be the best player he can be, he must be making steps toward beating the top players in the world.

That is who Naniwa is, that is why you can never separate his in game strength from his out of game rage. To ignore his out of game antics is to deny all of the struggle and determination he has put into this game. To deny his in game strengh is to deny the one thing that drives him above all else.

Liquid`HerO: Is it winter yet?

After the first few months of HotS release, it finally seemed that Hero was able to reach full power outside of the winter months. He won WCS AM during summer, got high placements in all of his tournaments he participated in, and was the ace of EG-TL during their run in the Proleague. Unfortunately it all fell apart for him in one silly sequence. He met ViBE in the losers match of WCS America Ro32 where on the second map he did a cannon rush to knock to American Zerg out. He then proceeded to try to do the same cannon rush against Scarlett in the deciding match, who had shockingly been watching the previous series and crushed HerO for his cheekiness. Since then he hasn’t been quite the same, or at least he's just been denied enough opportunities to show us what he can really do.

While still a strong player capable of getting far, you have to question his chances in a field of so many strong players. This current season of WCS and all the tournaments of autumn will be a chance for him to prove he has returned to championship form as DreamHack Winter approaches.

coL.qxc: Incredible Miracle?

Good NA players are a dying breed. A relic from a bygone era when people though NA players could hold a space on the world stage, when NA vs. EU fights were brought up as a serious discussion rather than sarcastic mocking, and when qxc all-killed team IM. With the inception of WCS AM and the mass Korean migration of 2013, the North American scene has been crushed. Players from NA are slowly losing their place to stand, and there seems to be one ultimatum: Make it to WCS, or retire trying.

Of course, there have been pockets of resistance. WCG nationals allowed Xenocider and Hendralisk to shine, Kane revealed himself at SHOUTcraft America, and Scarlett is just her own entity altogether. But for the most part, the veterans who gained followings during the good old days have left, while the newcomers struggle to make themselves relevant in a sea of Koreans.

That's why a player like qxc is special. He was here at the very beginning in WoL beta and here he is now 3 years later. His opportunities are much more bleak, but he's still a good player and more than willing to try and prove that against all sorts of competition. He has yet to make it into WCS itself, but has done reasonably well in tournaments such as MLG and IEM. This might very well be qxc's last chance this year, a year that was terrible for all American players. Can he conjure another miracle and give the foreign fans a glimmer of hope?

ST_Hack: Of course I like attacking on 4 fronts simultaneously

Despite IEM NY being one of the hardest LANs this year in terms of the roster, the Korean Terran representation is strangely low. Most of the top players are already qualified for Blizzcon, so it seems that most of them have decided not to spend the time or money on such a long trip. That leaves IEM NY with just two Korean Terrans: Flash and Hack. While Hack does not have the pedigree or results of Flash, Hack he did impress us by showing the most interesting games of the open bracket.

After getting beaten by San 2 - 0, Hack matched up against Snute in the most action packed matches of the night. Once it got into mid game Hack was constantly on the attack. Pushing one way, dropping two others, expanding and upgrading while microing all of the attacks at the same time. To Snute’s credit he fought extremely well against everything, but couldn't hold up against Hack's relentless multi-tasking. Each time a drop died or an attack was pushed back, another wave of aggression came right after to send Snute scrambling again. If Hack can keep up play like this, he could very well be the most entertaining player to watch in the group stages.

Group C: Curious, Flash, State, DongRaeGu

ST_Curious: The Gatekeeper

Once the gatekeeper of GSL Code S, Curious came upon hard times after the transition into HotS and has been demoted to gatekeeper of Code B. He was once a very solid, all around player in all three matchups, but now struggles with consistency. His ZvT seems by far his best matchup, strong enough to take out Innovation 2-1 to win the last spot to IEM NY in the qualifiers. His ZvP is extremely multi-task dependant, enjoying switching between mass roach burrow harassment and ling-hydra-ultra compositions. However, he had the bad luck of facing super-rookie Sora in both of his non-IEM tournaments, and he fell out of both Code A and the WCG Korea qualifiers as a result. If Curious keeps hitting Terrans in this tournament, expect him to go far. But if he runs into a strong Korean Protoss, we will find out if Sora's PvZ was actually that good or if Curious's ZvP was actually that bad.

KT_Flash: CCCLLLLLIIIIIIIDDDDDEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Was it coincidence or was it fate that made Clide become Flash’s coach for the majority of 2013? Both were players hyped at some point to be the best Terran in the world by Artosis. Both players are very strong in the Code S Ro32, and seemingly cursed to then fall out of the Ro16. But that is where the similarities end. While the Clide hype eventually declined as Clide used weirder and weirder builds, Flash has the Brood War pedigree to be hyped forever. Even after his third Ro16 elimination, fans still have hope that the greatest mind of Brood War will figure out a way to be dominant in SC2 as well.

Flash seemed to have the formula worked out for a while, using highly optimized builds and perfect macro to overwhelm his opponents with brute force. As some put it, he played the strongest version of "1a" StarCraft possible. But he has hit a wall with that approach, perhaps because he is too predictable, or perhaps because he lacks some kind of finesse that is unique to StarCraft 2. If Flash wants to get far in this tournament, he must show that he can evolve, that he can learn, and that he can change. Or else, he will become a very rusted Ultimate Weapon.

ROOT.State: Root for Root

One of the newer members of ROOT gaming's ever growing American Protoss line-up, State has been on and off in the NA scene for a long time. He seems to be well respected by his peers, but there's not that many relevant games of his to watch. Just a handful of WCS games, and any qualifier games that happened to be selected for a stream. Well, we suppose that's the case for all American players nowadays. In the qualifier for this particular tournament, State got a walkover win over Puck, beat his teammate Minigun in a teamkill, dispatched qxc in his final match to qualify for this tournament. Needless to say this will be a tough 3-Korean group for State, but much like qxc, we can still hold out for a minor miracle.

MVP.DongRaeGu: The King of New York (for now)

Watching DRG topple Innovation, barely lose in the Ro16, and then smash his way through the open bracket of IEM, one thing is clear: DongRaeGu is back. And I don’t mean his old skill is back, though that’s somewhat true as well. And it's not like I'm saying he is back to being a championship contender again, though you can make a pretty good case for that.

What I mean is...

On the third week of July in 2012, DRG had the worst week of his life. He lost in the semfinals of both the GSL and GSTL, and along with them his chance to go double finals in his beloved hometown of Busan. Normally the pain of a loss can only cut so deep, but for a guy who named his ID after the place he was born and was officially recognized as its overachieving son, it was close to the worst thing in the world. And though he did continue to trudge along, you could see the toll it took on him. He stopped smiling, his face was a study of intense concentration and mixed emotions. He just wasn't all there anymore, and a wave of young players quickly left him in the dust.

But coming into the last GSL of the year, something changed. The light in DRG's eyes had returned. His play was confident, menacing and on point. He smiled that toothy smile of his as he took victory after victory, giving that goofy "did I do that?" look. His victory over Innovation signaled the end of the era of the machine and the return of the other true Dong. Even though he was knocked out in the Ro16, DRG made plans to go to IEM NY and prove to the world he was back and ready to kick some ass. And much like a meth cooking chemist from a famous tv show, a hat has transformed him from a sad man who was lost in life to a ruthless destroyer of dreams. There is no place more fitting than IEM NY, the first tournament that he ever won in SC2, to claim his triumphant return.

Group D: sOs, Revival, HuK, San

Woongjin_sOs: More creative than TLO

After declining MLG to go to the Korean Asian Indoor Martial Arts Tournament (which had no prize pool), KeSPA and Woongjin gave sOs the chance to get back those valuable WCS points back by letting him attend both DH Bucharest and IEM NY. While he didn’t win DH, you can't really blame him since he got run over by TaeJa in full-on Summer of TaeJa mode. In the end, he got a nice consolation, beating the PvP demi-god Elfi in ranking matches to qualify for a spot at DreamHack Winter. Fortunately for sOs he ended up in the basically-guaranteed zone (99.99%+) to make it to Blizzcon anyway, so he could be happy with a high enough finish to earn a spot at the IEM World Championship instead. What a nice grand slam of season end finals that would be!

sOs is insanely stylistic in his play, enjoying cannon rushes, almost pathologically avoiding robo-tech, and finding ways to use Stargate units in all scenarios. sOs' creative builds are especially strong in PvZ, and it's no wonder that NaNiwa loves to watch him play. sOs could very well have been in the Code S Ro8, but he made one awful engagement blunder against Trap that sent him out in the Ro16. However, what also sticks out about Trap is that when he loses, he loses hard. Because he plays so off the wall, he tends to either crush his opponent or get steamrolled himself. Will his groupmates have done their homework?

EG.Revival: "Europe’s" last minute replacement

With ForGG unable to attend, IEM quickly found a Korean replacement. If IEM had thought no one would notice, then you couldn't really blame them. If EG’s foreign squad is an example of how to put faces on players, then their Korean squad is an example of how to erase them. Hired on as the first of three new Koreans to help EG compete in Proleague, Revival generally failed at that goal but used his position on the foreign team to kickstart his individual tournament career. He has played the best StarCraft of his life under the EG tag, getting runner-up in WCS AM season 1 and winning IEM Shanghai. Despite those accomplishments, I'm not sure how many people actually know about them, and he stays barely distinguishable from Alive except for his superior hair. Much like Alive, Revival forces other players to respect his play, even if he can't capture the imagination of the fans.

EG.HuK: Great Expectations

Though HuK may be everyone's favorite player to hate, he's still doing pretty alright. Maybe he rubs too many people the wrong way for them to admit it, but he's been quite solid in 2013 with multiple high finishes that would have earned an equally accomplished European player some praise. Of course, that doesn't mean much in a 3-Korean group, and the easy prediction is for HuK to get eliminated alongside his other North American compatriots.

However, HuK does seem to have it very slightly better than our other foreigners. With three Protosses in this group, the chance of an upset is always there. As far as we enjoy mocking HuK for taking random weird risks, we should admit that they can work in his favor at times.

Yoe.San: 50% Wolf, 50% Flash, 100% Man

After abusing Khaydarin amulet to a top 4 GSL finish in early 2011, San has been an online-only monster. Often credited with being one of the best Protoss players in the world by players like Parting and Taeja, San had trouble proving this on the live stage. This all changed for him at ASUS ROG Summer where he got to the finals of the tournament and was beaten by his #1 fan, Taeja.

Breaking his live-tournament duck should encourage San as he is playing some of the best SC2 he ever has, and he even has a new team to show for it. While it's yet to be seen if the Yoe Flash Wolves will give San all the support he needs to fulfill his dreams of hopping around the world and taking home purse after prize purse, they've done good by him so far. After San just narrowly fell out of the Asia qualifiers with a loss to INnoVation, the Flash Wolves stepped up and sent him to the open bracket anyway. San has made good on his end of the bargain so far, reaching the Ro16. If he wants to convince his team to keep sending him abroad, then a good result here will be important.