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4 Posts
WCS America kicked off the Round of 16 from its temporary home in Germany, with Electronic Sports League handling operations in wake of NASL's abrupt closure.
Though the Round of 32 had been marked by a plethora of upsets, including the elimination of players like Jaedong, HerO, and Scarlett, there were few surprises to be had on the first day of the Ro16. Four Korean players in  Oz,  Roccat.HyuN, AX.Alicia, and CMStorm_Revival claimed the first batch of tickets to the quarterfinals, with the remaining four to be played for on Sunday.
Unfortunately for fans from the US and Canada, IvD.puCK,  Fnatic.Neeb, and EG.HuK were all eliminated, leaving us with a familiar sight where no players from the Americas were left in WCS America.
The still teamless Oz was the first player to earn passage to the quarterfinals, holding off SCV pull timings from AX.Heart and out-dueling puCK in a PvP to take first place in Group B. He was followed by HyuN, who recovered from an unexpected 1-2 defeat to puCK in his first series to finish in second place in the group.
In group B, another Protoss player took first place as Alicia defeated Neeb and Revival to claim a quarterfinal spot. The brawl for second place ended up being closer than expected, thanks to an impressive showing from 16-year-old Terran Neeb in his live tournament debut. After defeating long time NA veteran HuK in the loser's match, Neeb gave Revival a surprisingly stiff challenge before being forced to tap out 1-2.
The WCS America Ro16 continues on Sunday with another double-header of groups. Though all of the players from the Americas have been eliminated, three Chinese players in MacSed, TooDming, and XiGua still remain to try and end the reign of Korean players in WCS America.
Next game day:
Group C: Arthur, MacSed, TaeJa, TooDming
Group D: Polt, CranK, Bomber, XiGua
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the chinese players stand tall.
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I wonder if EG regrets releasing at least oz and revival as both of them show that they are still top notch players.
btw. oz wants a team that is like a family. liquid has a reputation for being a team like a family. GET ON IT NAZGUL!
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United States23455 Posts
On April 06 2014 11:00 Tanzklaue wrote:
I wonder if EG regrets releasing at least oz and revival as both of them show that they are still top notch players.
btw. oz wants a team that is like a family. liquid has a reputation for being a team like a family. GET ON IT NAZGUL!
Especially since their big gun that they kept got HAS'D out in the Ro32 while these two make the Ro8.
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Was really pulling for Puck. He was so close!
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Neeb did well, good potential in the young 'un.
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Poland3752 Posts
On April 06 2014 11:21 Holytornados wrote:
Was really pulling for Puck. He was so close!
Exactly. Also he was heart broken after final loss to Hyun 
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On April 06 2014 11:00 Tanzklaue wrote:
I wonder if EG regrets releasing at least oz and revival as both of them show that they are still top notch players.
btw. oz wants a team that is like a family. liquid has a reputation for being a team like a family. GET ON IT NAZGUL!
Being good is not as valuable as being marketable.
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On April 06 2014 11:26 ROOTiaguz wrote:
Neeb did well, good potential in the young 'un.
Ehhhhh, he'll be old and washed up in a couple weeks. 12 is the new 16
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all korean wcs america :O
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Both Neeb and Puck did excellently. Wasn't expecting this much tbh. Recently Foreigners are showing shinier glimmers of hope than usual.
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Neeb played extremely well, I hope Neeb will continue his career, even after he goes to college (which is probably won't happen for another 2 years since he's only 16). Neeb to be the next Jinro :D
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Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion.
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Zerg didn't win code S, now I hope zerg wins this tournament (too bad there will be only 2 in the next round)
Still, there are some good players left, zerg will have it rough, but I'm praying for them!
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On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion.
Do we know enough about the release of Revival or Oz to say that it was because they didn't LIKE them? That's a pretty bold statement to make. As far as attention goes, Stephano was giving them a lot of attention by both being the "foreign hope" and an absolute monster in WoL. He retired and a lot of their other players weren't quite drawing in the attention like Stephano used to for one reason or another.
As far as HuK goes, he did really well in the Ro32 but fell short today. He beat TOP and HerO which wasn't an easy task.
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On April 06 2014 14:29 IntoTheheart wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion. Do we know enough about the release of Revival or Oz to say that it was because they didn't LIKE them? That's a pretty bold statement to make. As far as attention goes, Stephano was giving them a lot of attention by both being the "foreign hope" and an absolute monster in WoL. He retired and a lot of their other players weren't quite drawing in the attention like Stephano used to for one reason or another. As far as HuK goes, he did really well in the Ro32 but fell short today. He beat TOP and HerO which wasn't an easy task.
Yes, my statement is bold in some ways, regarding the release of Oz and Revival. Stephano became "foreign hope" because of his ability to go toe to toe with top Koreans, aka being a top tier player. In addition, he had a great personality that seemed to draw attention as well. In essence, he was the perfect player. He left the scene in good form, leaving us wanting more, rather than fading and fizzling out. Stephano continues to stream, drawing more if not the most viewers.
HuK has not placed well in a high profile tournament since 2012, I believe. It's been two years. TOP has not been relevant for even longer than HuK. I thought he retired? HerO is a strong player. HuK has always had strong PvP. I suppose it just surprises me because Protoss is doing very well in GSL/Proleague right now.
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On April 06 2014 14:29 IntoTheheart wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion. Do we know enough about the release of Revival or Oz to say that it was because they didn't LIKE them? That's a pretty bold statement to make. ...
demuslim tweeted "go huk and neeb!" during the matches that was shown on screen, not even for his old teammate revival. i dont even think he realized revival and oz were on EG!
thats not to say EG management didnt like them either. but we always knew it werent only results oriented/talented players that EG goes after.
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On April 06 2014 15:01 DaftFunk wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 14:29 IntoTheheart wrote:On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion. Do we know enough about the release of Revival or Oz to say that it was because they didn't LIKE them? That's a pretty bold statement to make. ... demuslim tweeted "go huk and neeb!" during the matches that was shown on screen, not even for his old teammate revival. i dont even think he realized revival and oz were on EG! thats not to say EG management didnt like them either. but we always knew it werent only results oriented/talented players that EG goes after.
EG picked up Oz Revival and Alive to round out their ProLeauge roster. Now they are not in SPL anymore.... It makes sense for them to be dropped from a managements point of view.
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I feel like Oz, unlike Alive, and partially unlike Revival, is pretty marketable. I'm sad that EG didn't feel the same way.
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On April 06 2014 11:44 Noocta wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 11:00 Tanzklaue wrote:
I wonder if EG regrets releasing at least oz and revival as both of them show that they are still top notch players.
btw. oz wants a team that is like a family. liquid has a reputation for being a team like a family. GET ON IT NAZGUL! Being good is not as valuable as being marketable.
When will people realize this...
Most likely what helped them is that they were in Korea while EG-TL was in ProLeague, but with that gone it made sense from EG's viewpoint to drop them.
On April 06 2014 14:29 IntoTheheart wrote:
As far as HuK goes, he did really well in the Ro32 but fell short today. He beat TOP and HerO which wasn't an easy task.
That was XiGua, not oGsTOP and not Top the Chinese Protoss. HuK didn't get to play Top in that group.
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HuK retirement or switching games incoming...
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I don't know what HuK is doing on the team. Where did that amazing talent to perform go? IT's not like he has no training partners. Why can't he improve and show results? Why is even being sponsored? Just because they signed an unbinding contract that says he gets a six figure salary for these many years and can't change teams or do anything else? He did great when he was in TL then just went down hill. Such a waste of talent and potential but mostly lack of will power.
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wow HuK makes 6 figures? thats amazing
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Didnt Blizz want to make rules so that koreans dont flood foreign qualifiers anymore? I mean, i understand when koreans advance in those tournaments, but its pretty useless when there are even like 2 to 3 times more koreans in AMERICAN qualifier than native players.
Cant be so hard to limit these pre-tournament stages to players which are actually living in those countries. Maybe give koreans in their countries twice the slot capacity but forbit them to take the easy foreign route.
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On April 06 2014 11:44 Noocta wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 11:00 Tanzklaue wrote:
I wonder if EG regrets releasing at least oz and revival as both of them show that they are still top notch players.
btw. oz wants a team that is like a family. liquid has a reputation for being a team like a family. GET ON IT NAZGUL! Being good is not as valuable as being marketable.
correct. how are people still posting in this thread and not understanding this? huk has no obligation to retire or quit SC2 until the industry ceases to deem him marketable. he's been so popular in the NA scene for so long that he could probably get an esports job after retiring if he wanted. do people actually think that being the best at a video game entitles you to more contract money than someone of lesser skill?
if it weren't fair for huk to be making so much money then people wouldn't follow him and they wouldn't be interested in him. the point of any sport as a business is to be an entertainment industry, and overall game skill is only one component of the entertainment equation
if you want to open up the "fair amount of money" can of worms, i could easily argue that it's not fair for anyone to make 6 figures playing computer games while orphans are starving. nothing in life is "fair"
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United Kingdom31935 Posts
Captain America gonna rep the US
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On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion.
Or, y'know, the 26 hour flight might have something to do with it.
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On April 06 2014 16:40 JohnChoi wrote:
wow HuK makes 6 figures? thats amazing
Post your source or GTFO
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I thought it was common knowledge that Warhammer figures were accepted as currency in E-Sports. Just need to tie them to bitcoins and voila!
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United States23455 Posts
On April 06 2014 19:16 Sirrush wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2014 14:16 Prolet wrote:
Huk clearly not quality any longer. 2-0 by Neeb? I know they keep players longer than they are competitive in the scene due to personality etc., but even that is questionable at this point. Releasing Revival and Oz was a mistake. I guess they don't have enough "bad boy" or character to sell the sponsors? EG lost a lot of attention Stephano retirement, in my opinion. Or, y'know, the 26 hour flight might have something to do with it.
Huk didn't make that excuse as far as I know and Neeb had to fly from the US as well.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/shiroiusagi/wcs/wcs_na_lr.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/America_1/ro16groupa.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/America_1/ro16groupb.png)
