Banner photo by Meru

IEM Shenzhen's Open Bracket got off to a rocky, very delayed start that seems to have been caused by a power outage at the entire venue. Eventually we did get through both Open Brackets... almost. Liquid'HerO qualified from the first one after a long period of downtime, eventually resuming his series against Life from replay. A seemingly tired Life tried a speedling all in that was easily held by HerO, before tying up the series with a massive roach counterattack in game 2. HerO closed out the series with a Sangate into immortal all in. His continued pressure forced Life to keep up unit production that he eventually could not sustain. Life will face Daisy, whom he beat earlier in the bracket, for a spot in Group D.

Click for full brackets on Liquipedia

The second Open Bracket showed a fantastic run by mYi's jjakji. Defending well against TRUE's roach aggression and bouncing back with a massive upgrade advantage, jjakji was able to snipe TRUE's spire in their first game. With jjakji's upgrades rising and TRUE's muta count being thinned out, the terran's victory was only a matter of time. Game two played out similarly - jjakji opened with a massively greedy build that had him start his upgrades far ahead of TRUE. The Jin Air zerg tried a big roach attack that seemed to kill a lot of jjakji's SCVs but at the same time, jjakji was wiping out TRUE's economy with drops to take the series 2-0.
TRUE still bounced back, making short work of Revival to secure a spot in Group B.

Zest, Illusion, San, jjakji
"GSL Style" double elimination. Top two advance to round of eight tournament

Countdown:

There’s a good argument to be made that Zest is the best player in the world. He first proved his mettle by walking the royal road in the first GSL season of this year. But on previous occasions we’ve seen champions lose their footing and immediately fall out of the spotlight. Zest differentiated himself from these flashes in the pan by subsequently winning the GSL Global tournament and then reaching the quarterfinals of the most recent Code S. The biggest reason why Zest was stopped in the Ro8 was that his go-to playstyle in his usually strong PvZ matchup was outright countered by TRUE's creative zergling/corruptor build. But in a weekend tournament like this, the chance that Zest gets sniped similarly are a lot lower. Since Zest first got famous in the Korean scene for holding the highest rank on the korean server for a long time, this kind of weekend tournament should also suit him. All in all Zest is not just the favorite to win this group but one of the hottest picks to win the entire tournament.

The other impressive protoss in Group A is WCS EU finalist San. San has always been a strong player but only after his ASUS ROG Winter championship of this year has he proven himself to be a contender for gold. Within his second place run at WCS EU, San has shown that he is in the proper form to take perhaps any tournament. In addition to that, San’s aggressive brand of protoss play is well suited to the long hours and ill prepared opponents of a weekend tournament. He seemed a little outmatched against StarDust in the WCS EU finals and Zest would definitely not be an easier opponent if the two met. San might find himself facing jjakji for the second place in the group, where I wouldn't favor either one of them over the other.

Illusion is the unlucky foreigner in this group. Aside from passing through the American qualifiers (after Polt and MaSa cancelled their participation) Illusion’s most recent result is a ro32 finish in WCS America where he went out 0-4 to the good but not great TooDming. Illusion faces the impossible task of defeating two GSL champions and a protoss powerhouse in San, all of which he'll have to accomplish while being a foreign terran. His chances in this group don't look too great.

mYi's jjakji rounds out Group A, joining the other three from the Open Bracket, where he displayed impressive TvZ against Vaisravana, Check and TRUE to qualify. Unfortunately for him, he won't have a chance to make use of his strong TvZ unless he advances through this group. He faces Zest first whose PvT has historically been his shakiest matchup. But that can only be said since his vZ and vP are monstrous. Jjakji has shown good form at this IEM thus far, so even though he's the underdog against Zest, he still has a strong chance to advance.

INnoVation, Snute, Stork, TRUE
"GSL Style" double elimination. Top two advance to round of eight tournament

Countdown:

The IEM Shenzhen tournament organizers have made these group predictions easier by placing one foreigner in each group. This may not have been the case had they put Snute in a different group, but as it stands he’ll be facing three excellent Koreans who all happen to be very strong in the matchup against zerg. Snute can certainly go toe-to-toe with the best Koreans on a good day. Just this week Snute all-killed Acer (including a win over INnoVation and two over MMA) and in the most recent Homestory Cup, he managed to beat Stork with a narrow 2-1. If this was held in Take's flat, Snute could be favored to make it to the finals. But now that we’re in Shenzhen, it’s more likely that Snute will fall at the first Korean hurdle. We all want to see him put up a good fight though, and if he does... who knows?

Stork makes his way into this tournament through the unique qualification of being last season’s Proleague MVP. Even though Stork has vastly improved in recent months (overcoming the terrible form that saw him accumulate a 13 game loss streak in Proleague at one point) his improvements only take him as far as a middling Code S player, a player that almost made it to the round of 8. His best result in HotS so far is winning the “ESTV Cup Season 2” against a competition of proleague regulars. Results and performances so far have been good but not great for this 10 year starcraft veteran. Going into Shenzhen he’s as determined as anyone to take it all but with world class waiting at every turn, it’s unlikely that Stork can make it all the way to the top.

Much like Stork, INnoVation is a player that nearly made it to the most recent GSL round of 8 - but unlike Stork, INnoVation is a more obvious title contender. He boasts a 37-6 record in the Acer Teamstory Cup with no obviously weak matchup. In the last 2 months he's won two of Dragon’s invitational tournaments. But if Innovation wants to qualify for Blizzcon and reassert himself as one of the very, very best he needs to start bringing in bigger results again. A tournament like this is exactly the sort of stage he needs to deliver on.

With TRUE joining the group from the Open Bracket, the group got a lot more interesting at once. We now have a strong Korean of each race and a strong contender for the ever mythical "best foreigner in the world"-title. TRUE is coming off a hot run that took him to the semifinals of Code S, where he met his end at the hands of soO after beating Stork and Zest to get there. He's also been called up as the ZvZ sniper for Jin Air recently. TRUE seems to excel in matches he can extensively prepare for. Coming from the Open Bracket, he won't have that going for him this time. It will be interesting to see if he can replicate his high level of play at a weekend tournament. If he can then he might go far.

Unlike Group A, where there was an obvious choice for last place finisher and a big favorite, this group is perhaps more intriguing due to being entirely unpredictable. Each of these players, even Snute, could come first and each could finish last. If you're looking for IEM's group of death, look no further.

Solar, puCK, EG.Jaedong, Liquid`HerO
"GSL Style" double elimination. Top two advance to round of eight tournament

Countdown:

The third group features two zerg and protoss duos, all of whom are familiar faces. Samsung Galaxy's Solar probably fits that image the least, even though he has been a regular for his team in Proleague and also made the Ro8 of last season's Code S. But his hot streak of results are very recent and aside from them, Solar has appeared in few tournaments - but enough of them, so that we're not surprised to see him here. He was invited to the Final Asian Qualifier for this IEM, beating Action, Life and Dear to qualify for the main event. With a strong ZvZer in Jaedong and two different, yet equally unpredictable PvZers in HerO and puCK, he can't rest on that achievement for too long however or his journey to China could find a rapid, abrupt end.

IvD Gaming's puCK has enjoyed a special place in the spotlight over the last few weeks. His admirable performance at the RedBull North America event and overall steadily increasing level of play have caught the community's eye. puCK had a tougher time at MLG Anaheim however, and this group is certainly another step up. Facing Jaedong first is never an easy task for anyone but in a lot of other tournaments there would be hope to bounce back and finish in second place. In this group, not so much. If puCK loses to Jaedong, he plays either HerO or Solar next. Even if he beats Jaedong, advancing almost does not become easier. This group is without a doubt the toughest challenge puCK has had to face in a long time and he will need to improve beyond even his currently strong form to advance.

Speaking of the Tyrant, where has Jaedong been? It's one thing for him not to win tournaments, but we were used to him finishing at least in second place. Fans were proven right when they said he would break the curse in 2014, but not in the way they would have wanted. Instead of smashing his way through every tournament he enters - as was foretold - he has almost become a middle ground player who, while rarely losing to players he should beat, also rarely beats players on his level or above. Whether it be MLG Anaheim, Dreamhack Summer, Homestory Cup or WCS America - Jaedong has been disappointing. Unless he can rekindle his inner tyrant the way he did last year, it's hard to consider him a tournament favorite among such fierce competition.

Liquid'HerO has suffered a similar fate, even though we're kind of used to it with him by now. Perhaps the most consistently inconsistent player in all of SC2, HerO undoubtedly hit a slump in his career for a while after his IEM Cologne championship. His level of play declined heavily, his tournaments became shorter than we expect from him. But sometime during Dreamhack Summer - probably after his first game against YoDa - something clicked for HerO, and his play has been rapidly rising back to his standards. PvZ still gives him trouble if you want to believe him but beating Sen and Life in the Open Bracket could be an indicator that those problems are being fixed as well. His first game against Solar should be interesting to watch. The prediction for HerO stays the same as always: could do very well, could do terribly. It's up to him.

Jim, MMA, TaeJa, WINNER OF Life vs Daisy
"GSL Style" double elimination. Top two advance to round of eight tournament

Countdown:

iG's Jim finally has a chance to redeem himself on Chinese ground after the disaster at last year's IEM Shanghai. He looked poised to advance to the group stage there, before leaving for the US embassy to get his visa for WCS America. Not only did he not get it, he was also disqualified from IEM's tournament for not returning to the venue in time. This time there was no need for Jim to fight through an Open Bracket, since he won the Chinese qualifier, planting him directly in the group stage. There are no easy groups at this tournament, but with two terrans who have both expressed and experienced having trouble against protoss, this might be the chance Jim needs. He faces either Life or Daisy first though and I'm sure he'd love nothing more than Life being eliminated in the Open Bracket. Jim is an underdog in the group but with the necessary builds, a bit of luck and all the protoss power, there's a chance for him.

The first place finisher from IEM's European qualifier, Acer's MMA took perhaps the hardest route through the increasingly difficult EU scene, and did so in impressive fashion. Beating Targa, Welmu, Happy and First along the way, MMA didn't drop a series and qualified straight for the group stage. The field of players at this event is definitely stronger than any competition he regularly faces in Europe but at least MMA is heading into it in good shape. He gets to play perhaps his most trusted matchup first, a TvT against Taeja. Although the Liquid terran is in probably even better shape, that match could go to either one of them - as could the entire group. MMA is a veteran at tournaments like this and depending on who else enters his group, he could have a good shot at reaching the knockout stages.

Speaking of good form, Liquid'TaeJa's has been spectacular over the last few weeks. The hype train has been slowed down considerably by abrupt losses to Pigbaby in WCS America and First in Dragon's Invitational, but it's still going. A lot of people still see TaeJa competing for the spot of "best terran in the world" but question his ability to keep up with the highest level players. There are six of last season's final 16 of Code S attending this IEM - Zest, TRUE, Solar, Stork, INnoVation and Life. This is TaeJa's chance to prove that he can compete with them. But at the same time, his hype train might derail if he fails to deliver.

STLife will face Wayi Spider's Daisy for a spot in Group D. Daisy put up a decent fight against Life in their first series, which included lots of cannons, but looked outmatched once his trusted all ins failed. Life would without a doubt have higher chances at succeeding in this group than his protoss opponent, but he can't look too far ahead or he might miss a cannon or two.