WCS Europe 2014
Premier League

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Youtube

MC, NaNiwa, Bunny, sLivko

by Waxangel

Finally, we're ready to begin the first WCS Europe Premier League of 2014.

Europe wasn't the toughest of the three WCS regions in 2013, but it more than made up in parity and excitement. On any given game day it seemed like any combination of results was possible between the tightly matched players. There were upsets galore as the unlikeliest players got a chance to tell their stories, whether it was Showtime eliminating Mvp in the Ro32 or duckdeok making a run all the way to the championship.

The only pattern that held for three seasons of WCS Europe Premier was the one that held all around the world in 2013: Korea's stranglehold on championships. With three more seasons of WCS Europe to be played in 2014, will the Europeans finally be able to hold?

Group A: MC vs. Slivko, NaNiwa vs. Bunny

Countdown:

It's hard to pick out a single group in the WCS EU Ro32 as the group of death, but Group A is definitely one of the tougher groups. MC and NaNiwa bring an abundance of star-power and tournament credentials to the group, while Bunny and Slivko lurk as dangerous darkhorse players.

Let's start off by talking a little bit about MC and where he stands. The #1 all-time prize money earner in StarCraft 2 fell upon hard times in 2013, having to endure the embarrassment of his first calendar year without a single first place finish. Though MC managed multiple top four and finals appearances, his lackluster performances against top players from Korea suggested his time as an elite player was over.

But as we've come to learn over the years, you can never doubt MC. The Bosstoss has started off 2014 by showing us not only good tournament results, but by proving he can take on the most formidable of his countrymen. HyuN, Bomber, INnoVation, HerO, and jjakji all fell to MC as he charged to second place finish at IEM Sao Paulo and a championship in the online Warer.com. Now that he has found his stride again, the greatest Protoss champion of SC2 has to be considered one of the heavy favorites to win WCS Europe.

Odds say he'll crush his first opponent in VP.BenQ.sLivko. The Russian Zerg was one of the players who benefited the most from the brood lord-infestor phase of Wings of Liberty, reaching the top eight of several international tournaments. While he tenaciously defended his Premier League status in 2013, he was unable to reproduce his old form where he was occasionally a threat to even Korean players.

The one thing going for Slivko here is that the swarm host-meta is rapidly being established as the neo brood lord-infestor. RorO, the last GSL champion of WoL – and thus, the final and greatest master of BL-infestor – has used the new swarm-host style to reestablish himself as a top Zerg. If Slivko can learn from the sinister master in the East, then he may be able to swarm his way to the Ro16 yet.

On the other side of the bracket, we have the sometimes inspiring, often controversial, and always entertaining [A]NaNiwa. The only thing more intriguing than seeing how many fines he will accumulate over the course of a season will be seeing how he has adapted to recent strategic trends.

As one of the most creative players in StarCraft 2, NaNiwa performs best when he's one step ahead of the curve. Though NaNiwa's solid mechanics and great micro allow him to play well even when he's doing the same stuff as everyone else, he really shines when he's bringing strategies other players just haven't seen before. This will be our first time seeing NaNiwa in two months (besides a one-sided 3-0 over StakimaN in the Challenger League), and chances are he's going to bring something new to the table.

Naniwa's first opponent CW.Bunny has the distinction of being our hipster pick of the group, and not just because he's one of the few Terrans in the tournament. He's sneakily climbed to the #7 spot on Aligulac.com's foreigner ranking, and everyone we ask says he's a pretty fine player (double Ro32 finishes in WCS 2013 notwithstanding). Will that be enough for a Terran-not-named-Polt-Maru-or-TY to overcome two Protoss opponents in his group? Probably not. But we hope he makes the games interesting.

Overall outlook and predictions

It's pretty clear that MC and NaNiwa are favorites to go through as the far more accomplished players in the group. Bunny's a player we'd look at as a potential spoiler in a group with Zergs, but the present environment just isn't one where TvP upsets happen that often. On the other hand, Slivko might be able to throw the PvZ's into chaos depending on his ability to be a dick with swarm hosts. If NaNiwa hasn't found an answer for swarm hosts (or a solid way to kill Zergs before swarm hosts) during his time underground, then Slivko could very well upset NaNiwa like VortiX and TargA have in previous WCS Europe tournaments.

MC > Slivko
NaNiwa > Bunny
MC > NaNiwa
Bunny > Slivko
NaNiwa > Bunny

MC and NaNiwa advance.

WCS Europe Premier League Season 1 Player List

Protoss (13): MC, Genius, Stardust, NaNiwa, Grubby, BlinG, Lilbow, Welmu, ShoWTimE, HasuObs, San, BabyKnight, NightEnD
Terran (8): MMA, Mvp, Happy, Bunny, Dayshi, Kas, ForGG, jjakji
Zerg (11): VortiX, Nerchio, TargA, FireCake, Starbuck, Slivko, TLO, Bly, LiveZerg, Snute, Miniraser