Tonight we'll see the only all-Korean group of the Ro32, one of the little quirks of WCS America's random group draw. It's a group of death simply due to the nationality of the four players, and you have to think ByuL, TheStC, Revival, and HyuN are all ruing their luck.
Odds don't favor lone TerranTheStC against the Zerg trio. While all of the Zergs either won a major championship or reached a final in 2013, TheStC's best result was a Ro16 finish. That's a far way off from the top four finishes he could be relied on to make in the past. His TvT is still very strong, but his vZ and vP matchups have suffered immensely since the release of HotS. TheStC barely even made Premier League this season by taking out Catz 3-2, with the ROOT captain being very vocal about vT being by far his weakest matchup. Neither statistics nor nor the eye-test give us much reason to think TheStC will advance, especially not with his first opponent being Byul. WCS America isn't going to get any easier going forward, so TheStC needs to make a statement right here.
On the other hand, Incredible Miracle's ByuL is on a roll. He might even be playing the best SC2 of his career. His rise was slow and steady, but all his work finally paid off late last year as the IM Zerg made it all the way to the finals of WCS America Season 3. He's continued to be a formidable player in all three matchups since then, and it's given him the right to be IM's ace player in Proleague. All in all, Byul has become an excellent player that you wouldn't expect to go out in the first round of a tournament. With his vT being ranked highest among his three matchups, Byul will be very happy to face TheStC in his first match.
After getting cheated out of over $20,000 by former team Quantic and being demotivated into near retirement, it's not surprising to notice that Roccat.HyuN hasn't been playing up to his old standards. HyuN himself admitted that he barely played for some time after the Quantic scandal, and his play at IEM Cologne was mediocre at best. He made it through the open bracket by defeating Leenock 2-0 but subsequently fell to Rain and ForGG while looking outclassed. A new sponsor in Roccat has given him new motivation, but we wonder if he's had enough time to bring himself back up to championship form. Will the passionate HyuN who reached a GSL finals and won Dreamhack have survived the Quantic ordeal intact? I certainly hope he has, because there would be nothing better than to show his new team that he was well worth the investment by maknig it to the live rounds of WCS America.
I always feel really bad for the three ex-EG Koreans Oz, Revival and aLive when I have to preview one of them and realize that they've almost entirely faded from our sight. aLive may have been permanently cursed to invisibility due to his personality, but Revival and Oz seemed to blossom under the EG banner. Who knew they'd be out on the streets after they gave IEM Shanghai a first ever all-EG final? ButRevival's case may be the saddest of those three. The now teamless zerg almost made it to Blizzcon wearing the EG jacket but with the entire world rooting for his opponent, he fell 0-3 to Naniwa. Revival had a fantastic 2013 compared to 99,9% of all other players, making a WCS America finals and winning an IEM event but was cut loose by EG's management nonetheless as the team reallocated their resources. Revival was always an on and off type of player who was capable of showing both great and terrible results but under EG he had the chance to show them. Now, with no team or sponsor sending him to foreign tournaments, he doesn't even have a chance to surprise or disappoint. His only hope of finding a new team is by keeping up his good results in Premier League and any tournaments he can qualify for.
Predictions!
Poor TheStC. If there had been one or two terrans in his group then this might have looked entirely different but as it is I don't see much of a chance for him. I'm expecting Byul to advance because of his consistent good showings in Proleague and the almighty coinflip decided that Revival would advance over Hyun.
Thanks for the write up, even though it made me kinda sad. Now I want all of them to advance. (just for the record, in Naniwa vs Revival, I was not rooting against Revival )
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Not nearly a record though I think. Some of the Europeans have 100+ games against each other if I recall correctly.
Cases in point: Nerchio vs. Kas, with a whopping 110 games (and a very even record!) and Goody vs. Hasuobs with just as many. Also notable is probably the biggest beatdown I've ever seen in SC2, by Nerchio. Poor Goody D:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Not nearly a record though I think. Some of the Europeans have 100+ games against each other if I recall correctly.
Cases in point: Nerchio vs. Kas, with a whopping 110 games (and a very even record!) and Goody vs. Hasuobs with just as many. Also notable is probably the biggest beatdown I've ever seen in SC2, by Nerchio. Poor Goody D:
Poor StC indeed. GL to him but we'll see what happens! Fun fact: Hyun and Revival have played 57 maps against each other in SC2 tournaments. Hyun has the upper hand, at 34 wins to Revival's 23. Another interesting fact. Aligulac still ranks Hyun really highly. His performance at IEM was all right even though he dropped out relatively early, and his rating's too stable to be dragged down that much. Here's what Mr. Gulac thinks:
Not nearly a record though I think. Some of the Europeans have 100+ games against each other if I recall correctly.
Cases in point: Nerchio vs. Kas, with a whopping 110 games (and a very even record!) and Goody vs. Hasuobs with just as many. Also notable is probably the biggest beatdown I've ever seen in SC2, by Nerchio. Poor Goody D:
This group is so hard for me. If Hyun plays his best I predict Byul/Hyun, if not then Byul/Revival (Revival is still pretty damn good). Not much hope for the StC. He said something about considering retirement if he lost to didn't make it to Premier, I wonder if that statement extends to being knocked out so early.
P.S. In the last line of the Hyun paragraph you wrote "maknig" instead of "making" doesn't bother me just wanted to let you know.
EPT
ByuL, 
TheStC, 
)
