EPTRo32: Group B Preview
What a relief! No Protoss is advancing from today's group! After Alicia and Oz became the first two players to earn Ro16 spots last night, tonight's group commences with just Zergs and Terrans.
Seeded into this group with a top eight finish last season, Axiom's
Heart will try to remind everyone that his lack of notoriety doesn't mean he's lacking in skill. Few paid Heart any heed in the previous season of WCS America, but he showed that he was a force to be reckoned with by reaching the top eight. Heart probably breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there were no Protosses in the group. TvP was never his best match-up (though it was his most famous one due to his liberal use of cheese), and Terrans in general have been having an especially hard time against Protoss as of late. In contrast, his TvZ is looking very strong as he has not dropped a series since November while taking on players like Rogue, Check, Suppy and KassiA.
Heart will like his chances against his first opponent in
ZoO.TooDming, but like all Chinese players he's not one to be underestimated. While players Jim, MacSed and Xigua have had their styles exposed to some degree, Toodming has the advantage of still being mostly shrouded. Most people would have to dig deep into their memories to remember more than a couple of his games. He took out Drunkenboi 3-1 to make it into Premier League, but Heart will definitely be a tougher challenge.The odds are against TooDming, but don't count him out. His Zenith of Origin teammate Top already scored one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by eliminating viOLet in the Challenger league, and Chinese players have generally been the biggest threat to Koreans in WCS America. We might see another unexpected result.
The other initial match-up will be very interesting for anyone who has been following MLG's Ender's Game Tournament. Did you think
Acer.Scarlett would stroll to victory in an NA only tournament? Nope, it was ROOT's MaSa who broke through and took the championship.Amusingly enough, MaSa might be the only Terran who wouldn't have minded the inclusion of a Protoss opponent or two, as he won the Ender's Game Tournament on the back of a 10-4 TvP record over players like State and Nony. Instead, MaSa has drawn the reigning best foreigner Zerg in
Acer.Scarlett, who surprisingly dropped out in the group stages of the aforementioned tournament. Though MaSa didn't have to play against Scarlett (she was eliminated by buddies MajOr and Kane), he did show strong TvZ against Kane (3-1 win in semis). Will that be enough to topple Scarlett? As strong as MaSa's break out performance was, there no way we can pick against the best foreigner Zerg. It's a rare instance to be able to call a North American player the favorite to win a group but in Scarlett simply performed levels above her NA peers in 2013. Even she was eliminated in the Ender's Game Tournament, one bad tournament result could easily just be a blip. Also, Kane and MajOr have been playing some of the best SC2 of their careers, and losing to them isn't the worst thing in the world. We've seen time and time again that Scarlett is capable of taking games and series off even top level Koreans and ZvT has traditionally been the matchup where it happened most often. Barring a bizarre, NaNiwa-esque performance, Scarlett should make it through this group.
Predictions!
Heart > Toodming
MaSa < Scarlett
Heart < Scarlett
Toodming < MaSa
Heart > MaSa
Scarlett and Heart advance.
