Open Bracket Preview
Who's Who in the Open Bracket

Pool Play Preview
Summer's On and the Pools are Almost Full

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

MLG returns to Anaheim with its first offline Starcraft II event in almost a year, and it looks set to recapture the glory of those 2011 and 2012 MLG's. Everything from the player list to the tournament format points to MLG getting back to its roots, and it will be exciting to see if this tournament matches the feel of those nostalgic events of old. Up to 268 players will battle it out for a shot at a share of the $40,000 and 4000 WCS Point Prize Pool and the MLG Championship, but only one will be crowned its champion.

The Format

MLG is going back to the old pool system, with an added twist. This time, it will be two pools of 8 playing round robin, along with a 256 man open bracket. Six of the eight players in each othe the two poeight players (Editor's Note: I have no idea what this means but I'm keeping it) in each pool have already been decided, while the other two spots in each pool will be filled by the four players advancing from the winner’s side of the open bracket. Everyone will advance from pool play into the bracket stage, but your round robin record will determine where in the bracket you fall. The top two players in each pool will play in the winner’s bracket semifinals after pool play concludes, while the six players from each pool who finish with lower records will have to fight it out in the loser’s bracket. In this loser’s bracket will also be four more players from the open bracket who will advance from the loser’s side. Ultimately one player will stand from the winner’s side who will clash with the champion of the loser’s bracket in a best of three or potential double best of three grand finals.

Yeah, writing that down didn't make sense to us either. You should probably go look at Liquipedia and continue your confusion there instead. Hey, at least there is no extended series rule at play in Anaheim, right?

by Darkhorse and CosmicSpiral

The Open Brackets at MLG events have long been known to be hard fought and packed with talent, and this MLG is no exception. However, this bracket does look a little strange. It’s like we time warped back to a 2011 MLG. There is not a single Kespa player in the Open Bracket lineup (I’m not counting MVP and Prime as Kespa here) and some true veterans of Starcraft II are coming out to Anaheim to try to make it out of this grueling Open Bracket.

The WoL Zergs: A Reunion in Orange County

Spread out the picnic cloth! The piranha tank known as the Open Bracket is especially purple-tinged this event, as almost all the successful WoL Zergs descends onto Anaheim. NesTea, HyuN, Life, Leenock and DongRaeGu are all signed up and looking to advance to the Championship Bracket. If this were Winter 2012 it would have been one of the most stacked (and snooze worthy!) open brackets of all time.

Sadly most of them are far from being proper contenders these days. Nestea is largely running on fumes and occasional flashes of brilliance. With decent results in WCS America he has a shot of making it into pool play, but even calling a top 8 appearance would be optimistic. Meanwhile Leenock fans don’t even have the consolation of GSL championships to fall back on. At this point, describing his pre-HotS career as a “slump” would be a euphemism. Since winning DreamHack Stockholm a year ago, Leenock has not advanced past the quarterfinals of a premier tournament. He’s failed to reach WCS Ro16 6 times in a row; his last decent LAN showing was at HomeStory Cup VIII, barely losing to jjakji in the Ro8. However, Leenock is a 2 time MLG champion and this isn't WCS Korea in terms of pressure. There's no better opportunity to go full shounen anime than when everyone is underestimating you. Similarly DRG has a long and storied connection with MLG, being the arena where he first established himself as a top Zerg. Hopefully it will spur him to a higher level of play than what we've seen in Proleague. But his post-WoL career has been full of these scenarios and they’ve only lead to small triumphs and fateful loses. Until DongRaeGu logs onto Battle.net, his condition is as inscrutable as the state of Schrödinger’s cat. He might play inspired, terribly, or enact quantum superpositioning.

Even Hyun and Life’s chances are somewhat tenuous. Both should coast into the winners side of the Championship Bracket on pure skill alone: HyuN has been a raging bull the last few months, taking WCS America and milking all the online money Europe can provide, while Life just won DreamHack Bucharest a month ago. Considering the relative competition, top 8 ought to be guaranteed. Yet there are legitimate questions whether they can take it all. Hyun’s 0-2 loss to MC at DreamHack Summer was a brutal reminder that despite all the deserved praise, all those cut checks are coming from foreign tournaments; in matches against other Korean players he’s come out so-so. Meanwhile, Life’s record following DreamHack has been spotty and reveals a clear discomfort with top-level ZvP. If he avoids HerO and Trap for the entire event, he’s a strong favorite to win. But someone like Seed or Choya could easily disrupt his plans.

*Symbol is a notable absentee from the WoL Zerg Family

Americans in the Open Bracket

These MLG’s and their massive open brackets give us a chance to see some of the American players that we somewhat rarely see in tournament play otherwise. Unless you like watching WCS AM Qualifiers.

The Veterans

desRow, iNcontroL, qxc, ViBE, SeleCT, and NonY are all making appearances in MLG’s open bracket. These players have been pillars of the North American scene since the earliest days of Starcraft II, and will all be looking to reclaim a bit of past glory at this tournament. These players may not be known as particularly strong players these days, but there was a time where they were considered some of North America’s elite. However, these players (with the exception of perhaps Incontrol, sorry Geoff) have shown improved results recently in WCS and smaller tournaments, signalling that their playing careers aren’t over just yet. Expectations probably aren’t too high for this group, but they will certainly have a lot of fan support as they attempt to get out of the Open Bracket.

The Up and Comers

State: It feels weird to classify State as an “up and comer” considering he has been in the Starcraft II scene for years, but State is, in effect, a brand new player now. State's life since joining the Korean team Prime and making appearances in Proleague have turned him into a unique kind among North American player: one that has experience in Korean tournaments. Although his stints in GSL and SPL haven’t yielded many charted results yet, State is currently the only foreigner formally training with a Korean team, something which hasn’t been seen since EG-TL. Now he just has to translate that training into results.

The EG Duo: The two youngest players for EG, Suppy and Xenocider have been around for awhile and shown immense promise, but neither has really made a huge impact on the scene. Xenocider snuck off with some "Korean Money" once and shows strong play in team leagues and Suppy was one of the better foreigners in late 2012 (remember when he was up 2-0 on eventual champion Parting in the Ro8 of the 2012 Battle.net World Championships?). Either way, the two EG players will be looking to make their mark on Anaheim as they haven’t had a huge degree of success in WCS.

The Honorary American: Harstem is a player who’s been hovering in the Ro32 with occasional breaks into the Ro16 for some time now. However, in the past few months, the Dutch Protoss has been on fire, taking down MC, Jjakji, and Snute in various tournaments. As he is going to be at an MLG, he is already basically an adopted American. Although the open bracket is littered with Koreans, expect Harstem to be a player that can potentially stand up to them and make the dream of a foreigner advancing out of the open bracket a reality. Oh, and #yearofHarstem.

Other Open Bracket Players

The Usual Suspects: It is an international tournament after all, so it’s no surprise to see such players as HerO, StarDust, Bomber, Revival, and Jaedong participating. With most of these players coming straight from a weekend in Sweden for DreamHack Summer, it will be interesting to see how they perform. Jaedong and HerO will look to build on their top four performances at DreamHack, while HyuN and StarDust will try to pick up the pieces. All in all, these players all have good shots to make it out of the Open Bracket and make deep runs in the tournament.

Newer Faces (at MLG): KeeN, RagnaroK, Choya, and Seed aren’t players we see all the time, but they will all be making appearances at this MLG. KeeN has the dubious distinction of being one of the better players on an ailing MVP in Proleague, but his recent win over TY shows some serious promise. Ragnarok is one in a long line of TSL Zergs, and is one that has yet to make a name for himself like Symbol and Revival. Seed had been teamless for quite some time, but the GSL champion has recently been picked up by Dignitas and apparently shipped off to Anaheim to earn his keep. Choya has opted out of playing in Proleague this round due to some criticism that he has received, but he has shown up on the list of Anaheim open brackets. Expect these guys to be better than most foreigners, but perhaps not able to keep up with some of the regulars in an international tournament setting.

by Darkhorse and XXTN

Twelve players will have the pleasure of watching the open bracket with little worry, as their triumphs at their respective qualifiers have already seeded them into Pool Play. With fewer games to play, a guaranteed spot in the final bracket, and a better chance of improving their stock, these players should feel relaxed entering Anaheim. With 9 of those 12 players being foreigners, Pool Play will definitely have an American hope in there somewhere. Only a maximum of 7 Koreans will make the championship bracket, and rest assured our real American heroes will be gunning for their heads.

Pool A

Polt, Scarlett, Trap, Illusion, puCK, Petraeus, Open Bracket 1, Open Bracket 2

The first pool of MLG gives a wide array of players from all over the globe. The winner of the Korean qualfier, Trap, should be considered one of the favorites in this group, and is the only WCS Korea player currently in Pool Play. The Zerg from New Zealand Petraeus won one of the four invite only qualifiers to jump in directly into the pools. The last time he came to the USA for a tournament he ended up in one of the worst Swarm host stalemates ever against Stephano at Lonestar Clash, and he will almost certainly be looking to play some more action packed games at MLG. puCK and Illusion are both known to be strong players in the North American scene with some moderate WCS success, but both will have to bring play we haven’t seen from them so far in order to finish near the top of this group. puCK did have a good showing at RedBull Battlegrounds recently despite being eliminated first, so watch out. Scarlett is in the midst of the most tournament filled week of her life, as she finished top 16 at Dreamhack Summer last weekend, won Red Bull Battlegrounds--going 3-0 vs Polt in Best of 3s--this week, and will play at MLG this coming weekend. Scarlett being burnt out is a real concern, but her success at RBBG should be a sign that she's still got a lot of fuel left in the tank. Finally we have Captain America himself, Polt. While Polt hasn’t been dominating the North American scene quite the way he was last year when he won two straight WCS America titles, he is still a threat to take almost any international tournament he enters and should be considered one of the favorites here. Also of note is the fact that Polt is the most recent MLG champion, having won MLG Spring 2013 almost a year ago.

Overall thoughts and prediction:

These groups are hard to call considering two spots are still available to a strong lineup of players from the Open Bracket, but we’re going to go ahead and rank the pools as they are. Polt hasn’t been in the best shape of his life recently, but I’m going to go ahead and call him first here, even with Trap and Scarlett in the group. The fight for second should be between Trap and Scarlett while the rest will scrap it out for placing going into the loser’s bracket. Trap gets my nod over Scarlett simply because he is a strong Protoss from Korea and Scarlett might be facing some serious tournament exhaustion.

1. Polt 2. Trap 3. Scarlett 4. puCK 5. Illusion 6. Petraeus

Pool B

TLO, viOLet, MajOr, Miniraser, HuK, hendralisk, Open Bracket 3, Open Bracket 4

Pool B looks like it may be the weaker of the two pools, but the wide variety of players participating should produce an abundance of interesting and creative play. Speaking of creative play, TLO was the winner of the European qualifier, taking the spot over other participants like Golden, SortOf, TargA, and Krass. The Liquid Zerg had a so-so DreamHack Summer, and he will be looking to build on his top 32 finish there. MajOr is one of the biggest names in the North American scene and has been for some time. Although he is currently teamless, he has managed to make top 16 in WCS America and qualify for pool play here, so expect him to continue his trend of strong play at MLG. Miniraser is a bit of an odd case, as he managed to qualify through one of the four invite only qualifiers held prior to the event. He was the only European player in any of the invite only qualifiers, and it will be interesting to see what the Fnatic Zerg can bring to the table. Huk is a name that all followers of Starcraft II will know well, but he has rarely been in the discussion as one of the best foreigners since his MLG winning days in 2011. Incidentally, Huk was the first player to win two MLG titles, winning MLG Raleigh 2010 and MLG Orlando 2011. Since then the feat has been replicated by MarineKing, DongRaeGu, Life, and Leenock. Huk is still the only foreigner to win an MLG after Koreans started to attend the event, but that will be a difficult feat to repeat at this stacked event. Hendralisk is one of the up and coming names in the NA scene, and he has had some recent success in WCS. Qualifying for pool play in one of the invite only qualifiers speaks to the improvements that Hendralisk has made recently, but this pool will most likely be a very difficult Challenge for him. Finally we have one of the honorary Americans, viOLet. viOLet has been impressing recently in qualfiers, and he did go through Suppy, Huk, and Polt to qualify for Pool play. At the end of the day, viOLet is a past MLG champion and should be considered one of the favorites in the pool.

Overall thoughts and Prediction:

As previously stated, it is impossible to predict the group without the two open bracket participants, but we can still rank the six currently in the pool. viOLet is probably the favorite here, while Huk, MajOr, and TLO will most likely duel for the second spot.

1. viOLet 2. HuK 3. TLO 4. MajOr 5. hendralisk 6. Miniraser

Champions of the Past

Back in 2011, MLG Pro Circuits served as career-defining tournaments for various players. With a year long hiatus since their last event, MLG finally returns this weekend, and 7 past champions are back to compete in Anaheim. Some have come looking to jumpstart their HotS careers while others are hunting for yet another premier title and the WCS points that come with it. With 3 previous champions already in pool play, it’s highly possible that the rest will make it through the open bracket. With so much talent assembling in Anaheim, will we see a repeat champion or is it time to make way for a newcomer?

EG.HuK: MLG has always been a special event for EG.HuK, the Canadian Protoss who captured hearts as well as the first ever MLG Pro Circuit championship in 2010. For Chris Loranger, Raleigh was his first major title and a springboard that catapulted him to the forefront of a budding SC2 foreigner scene. HuK’s break-out performance also caught the eye of Team Liquid, who quickly signed the young Canadian shortly after Raleigh. While some of HuK’s best days were on TL, he would go on to win his second MLG Pro Circuit as an Evil Genius in Orlando 2011. He played the best tournament of his career by beating the likes of MarineKing, TheStC, and MC.

But HuK was heavily criticized prior to Orlando and no one expected him to do so well against top Koreans. Now 3 years later, HuK finds himself in a similar position; it’s been a long time since Chris has been considered a top foreigner, and he is a clear underdog coming into Anaheim. Can he turn back the clock to 2011? Will we see HuK’s “top 3 control” or his stubborn gateway all-ins? This MLG will be an emotional return for HuK and perhaps even a chance for him to return to glory.

RedBull.Bomber: MLG Anaheim will be Bomber’s 6th Pro Circuit, not including Korean Invitationals and Qualifiers. He won his first and only MLG as a Startale player back in Raleigh 2011 without dropping a single series. Prior to winning MLG, Bomber was best known as the guy who beat Mvp for the Code A Crown. After that, people started hyping him as the next big Terran, but sadly, Bomber couldn’t live up to those lofty expectations… until he won MLG. For a moment, the world caught a glimpse of Bomber’s potential - his bold build order choices, impeccable macro, and unrelenting pressure.

Just when Bomber appeared to be on the rise, he instantly and inexplicably cooled off. While that MLG championship meant Bomber would always be a threat in any tournament he attended, he just couldn’t put together a consistent string of results. He finally disproved Bomber’s Law by winning the 2013 WCS S2 Finals but has since returned to dormancy. As inconsistent as he is, Bomber could either catch fire and become utterly unstoppable… or he could fall in the open bracket. However, I believe the former will show up; I believe the beast has been asleep for long enough - MLG is calling and it’s time to wake up.

MVP.DongRaeGu: Anyone who follows MLG Starcraft is probably familiar with DongRaeGu. In 2012, at the height of his career, DRG captured two MLG titles - Spring Arena 1 and Spring Championship - and also finished in second place at two other Pro Circuits. Back then, the Final Boss was playing to near perfection, placing highly in individual leagues while simultaneously carrying MVP in the GSTL. Once praised as the best Zerg in the world, DRG sometimes looked untouchable in WoL.

However, DRG has not transitioned well to HotS: the man seems to be a mere shell of his former self. He’s been stuck in the early stages of Code S, struggling in Proleague, and has no notable tournament results to speak of. Despite losing in the online Korean Qualifiers, the Final Boss has nevertheless come to Anaheim to grind his way through the open bracket. After losing early in both HSC 9 and the ShoutCraft Sandisk Invitational, DRG desperately needs a deep tournament run to regain some confidence. Having been to 4 MLG finals, DRG could not have possibly asked for a better tournament to put his limping career back on track.

yFW.Leenock: Currently playing at the ripe young age of 19, Leenock is already one of the most accomplished SC2 players in the history of the game. At age 15, he was also one of the youngest to ever compete in a GSL and fell only one Code S season short of the Nestea Award. Though Leenock has never won a GSL, he does have multiple international titles under his belt including two MLGs at Providence 2011 and the Summer Championship in 2012. In a legendary run at Providence that started from the open bracket, the Leenocktopus tore through 5 previous MLG champions - including vintage MMA and Mvp - enroute to his first international championship. Now Leenock is back looking for his 3rd MLG title, and he’s starting from the open bracket once again. Will history repeat itself at Anaheim? That would be quite the show, but sadly the odds don’t look so good.

Like several of the other former MLG champs, Leenock has struggled to transfer the same caliber of play from WoL to HotS. His only HotS title came in early 2013 at Dreamhack: Stockholm and he has yet to replicate that performance. Since joining yoe Flash Wolves earlier this year, Leenock hasn’t made the adjustments and improvements that he wants. Furthermore, he hasn’t been traveling much, nor has he made any significant inroads in the GSL either. Though he is regularly called upon by his team to play in the ECL and ATC, Leenock probably hungers after sweeter prizes. This kid has youth, potential, and drive all going for him as he enters Anaheim which means we may be in store for some Gangnam Style celebration on Sunday.

Startale.Life: Currently playing at the riper age of 17, Life has won several Premier titles at the age where most players are just starting to emerge onto the scene. Taking home a GSL in 2012 at the age of 15, Life made a tremendous initial splash onto the scene and has continued that success since. In a 4 month span, he took home an MLG, a GSL, Iron Squid and the 2012 Blizzard Cup. Since then, he’s only added more titles to his name, among them a second MLG.

However, Life, like all players, has had his fair share of poor results. Oftentime, the effects of being a student show in his play. Last year he found himself knocked down to Challenger League. Immediately after his first MLG win, he would falter at IPL 5, landing in 17th-24th place. In Proleague, his performance has been decidedly less than stellar. Despite these occasional stumbles, Life is still a contender in almost every tournament that he competes in. And lately, he’s been looking better than ever. With a Ro4 finish in GSL S1 and a title finish at DH Bucharest, Life is definitely a strong favorite to regain his throne, and work towards his third Triple Crown.

viOLet: Back in 2012, viOLet could justifiably have been called one of the best Zergs in the entire world. With six top four finishes in Premier tournaments including wins at MLG and IEM, viOLet looked to be a player that could do it all. Perhaps his most impressive performance ever was at IPL5, widely regarded as the most stacked international tournament of all time. viOLet took down ToD, Lucifron, Innovation, Snute, HerO, Symbol, and Polt to reach the finals from the loser's bracket. He was required to win both a Bo5 and a Bo3 against the winner's side finalist Leenock to claim the title. Undaunted, viOLet managed to win the Bo5 by a 3-2 score and narrowly lost the subsequent Bo3 1-2. Although viOLet didn't take the top spot, he proved to everyone that he was a world class Zerg, and one of the best in the world at the time.

Unfortunately, viOLet's transition into HotS hasn't carried over the momentum of his fantastic 2012. Visa issues forced him to forfeit twice in the first two seasons of WCS America in the Round of 16. Ultimately, viOLet took a break following his second forfeit in order to sort out his visa issues. Now that he has secured and athlete's visa, viOLet is slowly returning to championship form. He took fourth at his most recent offline event at LSC3 with a loss to Jaedong in the semis and a loss to Bomber in the 3rd place match. It seems as though viOLet is back on his inevitable track to being one of the best again, and MLG would be an excellent platform for him to return to prominence.

CMStorm.Polt: Finally, we have our most recent MLG Champion, who won the last MLG event just under a year ago. Polt is very much the opposite of viOLet when it comes to Heart of the Swarm. Although he was certainly world class in WoL, moving to America coinciding with the release of HotS has caused an explosion in Polt's career and popularity. The first example of this was his championship at MLG Spring last year, where he triumphed over his former teammate Hyun in the finals. Since then, he has become the only player to win back to back WCS championships in a region, with wins in Season 2 and 3 of WCS America. Now, Polt is one of the most popular and skilled players in the entire world.

Recently, there have been whispers that Polt may have lost a step since his back to back WCS Championships of last year. Sure his Ro8 loss to Revival in Season 1 this year was a little disappointing, and his 2-4 defeat in the LSC3 finals at the hands of Jaedong was somewhat surprising, but Polt will always be a top contender at international events. Polt is someone who overcomes matchup difficulties, perceived imbalances, and top quality competition every time he takes the stage (see his run at IEM Cologne to verify). All in all, Polt has the tools necessary to make a deep run here, and possibly add another MLG Championship to his collection.

Writers: Darkhorse, XXTN, CosmicSpiral, peanuts.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photo: R1CH and Silverfire.
Editor: lichter.