WCS Europe 2014
Premier League

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MMA, NightEnD, Welmu, Starbuck

by Waxangel

The final two spots in the Ro16 are up for grabs in tonight's WCS Europe group. Not only are trips to the ESL studio in Cologne on the line, but so are invaluable Premier League seeds for the next season. Let's meet our contenders for the last tickets to the Ro16.

Acer.MMA headlines this group as the defending champion of WCS Europe. His championship run at WCS Europe Season 3 brought an official end to a prolonged slump and title drought that had lasted for over a year, and he did it in emphatic fashion by going 18-3 in the entire tournament. Though some questions still remain about MMA's ability to succeed at tournaments where the best Koreans from around the world are gathered, he is without a doubt one of the top championship contenders in WCS Europe.

A recent interview with Korean website Inven revealed that the stakes for MMA are higher than ever. Though MMA's military service can be put off until October of 2015 – an eternity later in progaming terms – he seemed to view 2014 as a make or break year. MMA mentioned early retirement as a potential option depending on his results, and set winning all WCS Europe seasons as his personal goal. "...I want to win all three seasons. After that, I want to do my military service like a boss. I want to go out with a bang and retire."

We know from past experience that any talk of retirement from a progamer has to be taken with a grain of salt. However, if MMA is serious and is putting in the effort to give his career the storybook ending he wants, then we might see the best MMA we've ever seen.

MMA's story is unlikely to pull the heartstrings of the three other players in the group who are still looking for their own moment of glory in StarCraft. His first opponent will be NrS.NightEnD, a player who's had an even longer career than MMA in StarCraft 2. It's a bit of a surprise that this is NightEnD's first WCS Europe Premier league tournament. Though his name is rarely seen in the top eight of big European tournaments, over the years he's a player who we've seen countless times in the Ro32 to Ro16.

In the WoL days, we could count on NightEnD to score a high-profile PvT upset against Terrans every now and then (he's one of the two foreigners in the WoL era to have a series win against TaeJa). However, the NightEnD of the HotS era has yet to measure up to that old standard. A victory in his initial match against MMA will be difficult, but NightEnD still has every chance to make it out of the group.

In the other starting match of the night, NrS.Welmu and MiA.Starbuck are lined up to meet in battle. Welmu is a player that we've been touting as a darkhorse for quite some time now, but by now we can say that he's largely recognized as very strong European player. Just look at his rating graph on Aligulac.com!

In terms of tournament placements, Welmu has failed to achieve another finish quite as good as his top six in WCS Europe Season 2 last year. But if you look beyond where he finished on the podium, Welmu has continued to impress by taking series off strong Korean players. How many other European players can say they beat Alicia, viOlet, herO, and Life in 2014? Even Soul Train master PartinG had to express his appreciation for Welmu's clever and frequently cheesy builds.

If Welmu has graduated from being the darkhorse of WCS Europe, then he can pass that mantle down to StarBuck. The Slovenian Zerg had a fantastic debut in WCS Season 3 of 2013, beating players like Grubby and Lucifron to reach the top sixteen of the tournament. Though he hasn't had a chance to compete in any of the big, live tournaments during the off season, he's at least been keeping his momentum going with good online performances.

StarBuck also brings unpredictability through his selection of builds. Notably, he gave WCS Korea champion Dear a warm welcome to the Europe, eliminating him from an online tournament with a rarely used drone-drill all-in. Meanwhile, in WCS Europe's Challenger League, he used a bevy of all-ins to eliminate German hope HeRoMarinE. Possessing solid macro play as well, StarBuck's a player for all you hipster fans to look out for.

Predictions:

MMA > NightEnD
Welmu > Starbuck
MMA > Welmu
NightEnD > Starbuck
Welmu > NightEnD

MMA and Welmu advance.