Countdown:

by stuchiu

PkD.Oz: The last time Oz played in a Korean individual league was back in October of 2012. A year and a half later, we find Oz making an unexpected return to the GSL in the Ro8 of the GSL Global Championship. Oz had been through quite a journey in that time. He's been on three different teams. He's fought as a mercenary in Proleague. He's travelled to Singapore, Sweden, America, Romania and China in search of a championship. And though he hasn't been able to reach that goal yet, you have to admire the tenacity of one of SC2's true journeymen players.

Along the way, he's never compromised his playing style. Eschewing popular trends, Oz makes his own builds, hits his own timings, and uses his own intuition to try and outthink opponents who stick to the conventional wisdom. Sometimes this works and he gets to a Ro4 or the finals. Other times he goes down in flames with his experiments. He'll drop off the radar for months, almost completely forgotten, only to show up again and surprise us with a deep tournament run. Then he'll begin the cycle all over. That's the kind of player Oz is.

It's good for Oz that he enters this tournament right on the tail of one of his best tournament runs yet. Oz nearly went all the way at WCS America, reaching the finals before losing 2-4 to HyuN. Whatever Oz is doing, it is working for now. For the player who left Korea in search of opportunities, his best chance might actually be waiting for him back at home.

SKT_soO: Losing once is nothing. Losing twice is a coincidence. Losing three times in a row? You might might as well call yourself MarineKing the Second and steal his silver stool. Instead of asking ourselves if soO can finally win, we find ourselves more intrigued to find out whether or not he can lose again. We wouldn't be surprised if soO still has nightmares about his loss to Zest in the last GSL finals. He had advantages in multiple games, and plenty of chances to close out the series and claim the Code S championship. Instead, he let Zest comeback from behind and earn a narrow 4-3 victory.

For all the pain soO has had to endure, he's at least earned a lot of respect for making it to two consecutive GSL finals. If it makes him feel any better, he's already shown up Dear (the player he lost to in the Code S Season 3 finals last year) by continuing to play at a championship level while Dear has gone crashing and burning out of Code A. In the Global Tournament, soO might have a chance to get a more direct form of revenge on the player he lost to in the finals. With Zest already awaiting in the semifinal bracket, we might just be days away from a charged rematch of the Code S finals.

yoeFW.San: A majority of San’s career can be said to be a battle with himself. Often cited as one of the best Protoss players by many of his contemporaries, San just couldn’t cut it in live tournaments. He would and often did win almost every major Korean qualifier for almost every foreign international tournament to only show up and bomb out at the live event. This kept going on until San finally joined the YoeFlashWolves, a Taiwanese team that previously had little recognition in the West.

Whether it was because San finally had the mental security of having found a foreign team, or because FlashWolves kept sending San to enough tournaments that he overcame his live tournament nerves, he finally began to show his potential. His tournament results have been better than ever, and he even won a breakthrough championship at ASUS ROG Winter. Both San and FlashWolvwes have benefited greatly from their relationship: San is now a champion, and FlashWolves are known by everyone as a team to be reckoned with.

All this has now led San back to Korea, where he will try to break the mold by becoming the player who left home and came back even stronger.

JinAir_Maru: Maru is the only Terran that matters. As we're headed into the second straight Code S season with four or less Terrans, Maru is single-handedly keeping Terran in the championship picture. There aren't any special strategies or know-how involved. Maru is getting it done through sheer aggressiveness and god-given talent.

Maru has some of the best macro in the world. He also has some of the best micro and multitasking in the world. It all combines to allow him to play a constantly attacking style of TvP that lets him ignore all the established notions about match-up. There isn't a disadvantage he can't overcome by simply being faster than his opponent. In a way, Maru takes away as much hope as he gives. Yes, he's showing an extraordinarily high level of Terran play and keeping the race relevant in Korea. But the solution he presents is not one any other Terran can hope to imitate.

When Rain won his PvP Group of Death last season, he was scared out of his mind that Maru would make it to the finals. Thankfully for Rain, the Terran hope lost to Life in a close 2-3 series in his 'weak' match-up. But despite that setback in the GSL, Maru had no trouble qualifying himself for the Global Championship, and he destroyed all three players he met in the online Ro16: Flash, Action and Impact. Even in this group stacked with championship class players, Maru is just a step above everyone else.

Overall Predictions:

Maru is the overall favorite here as his TvP has to be the best in the world. If he can't make it out of this group, then expect balance complaints to go through the roof.

Despite being a GSL finalist, soO could have a tougher time than expected. Oz is sure to pull something unexpected out of his wizard hat, and he's well-known as a savvy cannon-rusher. San is also a player notorious for his PvZ timing attacks, and has even been collaborating with PartinG to create even more devious all-ins. However, the fact remains that soO was excellent in ZvP last season, and came very close to defeating Zest to win the Code S championship. We have to pick him to advance here.

Oz > Soo
Maru > San
Maru > Oz
Soo > San
Soo > Oz

Maru and Soo advance