IEM Global Challenge
New York 2013

Final Four Preview
HyuN, Naniwa, Life, Curious


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Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Curious, Life, NaNiwa, HyuN

by Waxangel

Just four players remain as we move onto the final day of IEM New York. Not only is a $10,000 first place prize on the line, but there are significant WCS stakes involved for HyuN and NaNiwa as well. Let's take a look at the last four players as we count down to the final day.

ST_Curious

We wrote about ST_Curious at length in an earlier article, musing about how the former Code S gatekeeper had lost his career-defining consistency in HotS. If going on an amazingly hot run like Curious has at IEM New York is what you get back in return for losing that consistency, then it may very well be a worthwhile trade.

Though we already knew Curious' ZvT and ZvZ were very strong, his victory over an extremely strong PvZ player in sOs gave us renewed confidence in his PvZ. His 0 - 4 record against CJ's Sora had us wondering whether Sora was an extremely strong player or if Curious just had a weakness in ZvP, and it now appears to be that the former is the case. With both NaNiwa and Life having struggles against Zerg as of late, Curious must be feeling great about his chances of winning his first major championship.

ST_Life

ST_Life was just so damn impressive at his peak it's hard for us to appreciate his current skill level. No, he's not THE best player in the world, effortlessly dominating his hapless peers. But he is still a very strong player, capable of challenging for a championship in any tournament he enters.

Unfortunately for Life, his ZvZ is his weakest match-up where he has only a 34-27 record (stats via Aligulac.com), and he may very well have to face two Zerg opponents in a row. While that's not a terrible record by any means, it's inflated by a lot of wins against foreigners. Against fellow Korean Zergs, his winrate drops far below 50%. If Hyun defeats NaNiwa, then it will become very difficult for Life to win the championship.

Alliance.NaNiwa

Despite being out of Korea for a few months, Alliance.NaNiwa showed impressive skill to take out Hack (twice) and San to reach the top four of the tournament. However, it's important that he go further if he wants to maximize his chances of qualifying for Blizzcon, with Die4Ever's probability model giving Naniwa only a 4% chance of making it to Blizzcon if he loses in the semis. That chance improves to 39% if NaNiwa takes second place, and hits 68% if NaNiwa can win it all. Though his ultimate fate will still be influenced by other players, NaNiwa can put himself in the best possible position.

Foreigner fans will be looking at NaNiwa's loss to Targa in WCS Europe and worrying about his chances, as his sOs-esque void-ray style seemed to have been figured out by the Norwegian Zerg. Although we haven't had many good chances to see NaNiwa's PvZ since then, we can assume that he will have learned from that loss and tweaked his PvZ. NaNiwa has shown that he can beat even the best Koreans when he is strategically ahead of the curve, and we will learn tomorrow where his game is at.

Quantic.HyuN

Quantic.HyuN scrapped together an impressive amount of WCS points without even playing in the Premier League for most of the year and he's already guaranteed another nice haul at IEM New York. However, winning IEM NY alone won't help him get to Blizzcon. He still needs to get some kind of good result at WCS America or the Season 3 finals to go with it. Still, the IEM NY points would lower the amount of points he has to acquire in the upcoming WCS events.

Though HyuN has defeated only Zerg players so far in his run through the tournament, he is one of SC2's most balanced players with a win-rate hovering in the mid 60%'s in every match-up. Like Curious, he should feel confident against any of his potential opponents, and like his chances to take home his second major championship of the year. Also, as Spiderman, HyuN should have the hometown advantage.

Writers: Waxangel.
Photos: Kevin Florenzano, ESL.
Editor: Waxangel.