by tree.hugger

ESFX.HappyZerg vs mYi.Jjakji

Count HappyZerg as another one of those seeded players looking forward to coasting into Premier by facing one of the newbies from the qualifiers, only to get socked in the face by the draw. The Ukranian Zerg is a veteran who has toiled hard over the years at the back of the line in a country that has produced some of SC2's most recognizable faces. You've got to admire his persistence, if not his quality of play.

HappyZerg is woefully outmatched by Jjakji however. The Korean Terran is among the favorites in the entire tournament, and Ukraine's third (or fourth?) best Zerg is not going to stop him. Jjakji is a GSL champion, and recently placed in the top four of IEM São Paulo. He rarely loses to Zergs (random losses to Hendralisk and Tefel in online cups are about HappyZerg's only reason for hope). He has come to Europe for free money and he is absolutely going to take it.

This will start a weird day of WCS. While the seeds have almost all soundly thrashed their challengers, there has at least been some question to the outcome in a lot of matches. But on the final day of WCS EU Challenger, there isn't a lot of doubt.

Prediction: Jjakji 3-0


XMG.ToD vs Fnatic.Miniraser

It's not easy to put this gently, but ToD vs Miniraser is probably the weakest of any Challenger match-up. ToD has been great in the past, and his WCS success last year was a great story, but there's no doubt that his focus has been divided. Miniraser could possibly have a great future ahead of him, but he's just a tadpole right now. This is one of those matches, where you feel just a bit bad for players like Daisy and HeRoMaRinE who would probably defeat either of these two players, but drew much tougher matches and are now out.

That said, this is what we have, and both of these players certainly earned their way here. It's not an easy pick. ToD has been a very strong player in the past. While PvZ was never a particular strength of his, it was far from a crippling weakness. Meanwhile Miniraser does count ZvP as his best match-up. But how good is it? Losing to MiA.Cheeseking 0-2 last month isn't the best way to prove your mad skillz in the match-up.

Like always, my prediction falls on the side of the guy who's on the way up. I'm a sucker for new guys breaking into the scene. But this series will be a sloppy one, and ToD is a wiley vet who won't go quietly into the night. I wouldn't be surprised to see Miniraser struggle to close out games with a big advantage or fall to a clever pocket cheese. In the end, he'll emerge victorious. And while neither of these players appears a big threat to win the league anytime soon, this match should at least be very fun.

Prediction: Miniraser 3-2


MǂforGG vs aTn.Lambo

Fun fact: Lambo has the second lowest aligulac rating of any player in challenger.
Fun fact: forGG has the third highest aligulac rating of any player in challenger.

Sorry Lambo.

Prediction: forGG 3-0


NightEnD vs [A]SortOf

NightEnd made news recently for leaving Fnatic along with SaSe. And that's about the only thing he's made news for in... months? years? It's unclear what NightEnD's future in Sc2 might look like. The Romanian is still playing Sc2, and he's still good, but the days in which he was a fairly integral part of the scene are long gone. Remember when NightEnD made the Ro4 of Dreamhack, playing before thousands of fans in a hockey stadium? Even if you were there, you might have forgotten. Safe, solid, and consistent, NightEnD shared that foreigner destiny to be invited or qualified to stuff he could never win.

In contrast reports of SortOf's demise appear to be greatly exaggerated. The Swedish Zerg was best known for being the Patch-Zerg-In-Chief at the end of WoL (DAE swarm hosts?). He is not well known for being 50% of Alliance's Sc2 division, which is odd because he is (in fact) 50% of Alliance's Sc2 division. But at ASUS ROG we finally saw the Swede step out of the shadow of NaNiwa and have some success of his own. SortOf crushed Happy and TaeJa (Wow!) in the first groupstage. He got creamed in the second groupstage by San and Snute, but you've got to give him big credit. At least we know that his ZvT is world class.

Now, NightEnD is not a terran, and so that somewhat hurts SortOf's chances. But the Swedish Zerg is way more active than his opponent, and he's consistently demonstrated a much bigger upside as well. It might seem a bit out on a limb to call for a clean sweep, but there's not enough signs of life on NightEnD's side to give him much of an edge.

Prediction: SortOf 3-0