WCS Europe 2014
Premier League

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TargA, Miniraser, San, Dayshi

by Waxangel

Thus far, WCS Europe has lived up to its reputation of being the most even and unpredictable region with NaNiwa and ForGG both getting eliminated in week one. Even Yoe.San, the recent ASUS ROG Winter champion, can't take Ro16 advancement for granted. Now, under normal circumstances, we'd call him a lock. Even in the old days before San was a champion, back when his propensity to choke rose linearly with the stakes of a match, he was still amazing in the lower, online stages of tournaments. Surely a championship-class San would have no trouble taking care of business in the Ro32 of WCS Europe?

However, San won't just be fighting his three opponents in this group. He's taking on the dreaded wall of Korea-Europe lag as well. San was in Europe for just long enough to play his Challenger match against elfi as well as IEM Cologne and ASUS ROG, but he has since returned to Korea. Just to remind you about what KR-EU lag can do, it was the only thing that prevented WCS Europe from becoming just like WCS America in 2013, and even saw ShoWTimE eliminate Mvp from the Premier league in Season 3.

At least the match-ups are good for San with two Zergs in his group. PvZ has been his best match-up for basically all of HotS as he has shown an uncanny ability to mesmerize opponents into making stupid decisions once they see his "san-gate" rush (4-gate zealots after expand). San has told us himself that he doesn't really understand why players keep falling for it, but as long as it keeps working he's not complaining.

Before he can get to the Zergs, San will have to take on a Terran player in France's Mill.Dayshi. PvT was once a problem match-up for San, but he's caught on with recent trends and improved noticeably. Dayshi's TvP hasn't been particularly impressive as of late – the same goes for anyone not named Polt – which makes things all the better for San.

Despite a rough initial match, Dayshi should be quite content to go up against two Zerg players in his group. Ever since the start of HotS, Dayshi's great macro and neverending attacks have made him one of Europe's top TvZ players. For what it's worth, he's even undefeated against his two potential Zerg opponents. In a very even WCS Europe region, it really is about as ideal a group comp as Dayshi could reasonably wish for.

So, let's meet those two Zergs who we've painted as being goners so far. First there's Fnatic.Miniraser, who might actually be a goner. Though there will be more than a few viewers who will be seeing Miniraser playing for the first time, the Swedish Zerg isn't exactly a newcomer as he's played at DreamHacks and other live tournaments in 2013. However, this will be his WCS Premier League debut. So far, our rule of "don't pick WCS first-timers to advance" rule-of-thumb has held up pretty well, so we're not optimistic about Miniraser's chances.

On the other hand, TargA is a veteran who has already shaken things up in WCS Europe. It might be easy to forget, but he's actually the seeded player in this group as he finished in the last season's top eight. Players like NaNiwa, Welmu, and Happy were some of Targa's victims before he ran into the wall of MC in the quarterfinals.

Thanks to the power of social media, we're particularly excited for the potential San vs. TargA match ahead of us:


We're as perplexed as TargA: How does San keep doing it? Have San's opponents simply been over-thinking things as San speculates? Will TargA just watch the complete replay packs from both ASUS ROG and IEM Cologne and break San's zealot timings down completely? Will San just change gears completely to throw his opponent off guard? It's a bit of an obscure match to get excited over, but we're looking forward to seeing these questions get answered.

Overall outlook and predictions: Even with the KR-EU disadvantage, we're picking San to get through one way or another. Think of it this way: if duckdeok can all-in his way through Challenger and the Ro32 to eventually claim a championship, then why can't San? As for the other spot, we like Dayshi's chances to ride his TvZ to the Ro16.

San > Dayshi
TargA > Miniraser
San > TargA
Dayshi > Miniraser
Dayshi > TargA

San and Dayshi advance.

Qualified for Ro16:

Protoss (2): MC, BabyKnight
Terran (2): Bunny, jjakji,
Zerg (2): Nerchio, VortiX