WCS Europe Season 3
Challenger League

Previews and Predictions
Morrow vs Mvp
Kas vs Tefel
Adonminus vs Happy
Bly vs Stephano
Lillekanin vs Patience
Dayshi vs Ret

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Countdown:

The day kicks off with two players who are both the very definition of old school. Property’s MorroW is in fact the first champion of any SC2 LAN event, taking IEM Cologne in early 2010. Coming from a strong Brood War background, the Swede was among the initial foreign hopes, placing well at several tournaments early on in the game. After using Terran for several months, MorroW became one of the first notable race switchers, changing to Zerg at the close of 2010. The switch was a good idea for the mouz player, as he placed highly in several events in 2011. Since then, he has returned to full time Terran play. His results have tapered off, though he still makes a strong showing in at least one or two tournaments a year.

MorroW’s play is incredibly standard. Favoring bio compositions, he relies on good mechanics to build up a solid economy and army over the course of the game. MorroW is not a terribly risky player, preferring safe, economical play. Drop harassment is common, but not a staple, of his style. The Property Terran possesses impressive micro, able to get himself out of any situation.

Mvp needs no introduction. Perhaps the greatest SC2 player of all time, the former IM Terran has won an unprecedented 4 GSLs. Numerous other titles have left him as the most decorated player in SC2 history. The first to achieve the Triple Crown, Mvp’s dominance of the game is something that hasn’t been seen since. Perhaps most telling of his strength as a player is the fact that Mvp has won a Premier tournament in 2011, 2012 and 2013, one of a handful of players to do so.

Mvp’s play style is whatever the situation calls for. The best player in a Bo5 or Bo7 scenario, Mvp is already thinking 2 games ahead while playing his current match. His cheese play is excellent, able to throw off any player from their set tempo. Though his micro has somewhat slipped off in recent years (a result of injuries), his bio play is still impressive, with excellent concaves and splits. Over the past year and a half, Mvp has taken up mech as his main style, to great effect. Steady siege lines, hellbat drops, and hellion runbys are staples of Mvp’s style. Though his mine usage isn’t as pronounced as other mech players, it is very effective, and the recent patch may cause a rise in his mine numbers. Mvp has been looking very strong lately, making deep runs in qualifiers and online events. Though he hasn’t played many games since the patch, most of all the changes are only things that will help, rather than hurt him.

Prediction: Morrow 1 - 3 Mvp

Cascade.Kas is another of Eastern Europe’s most accomplished players. Dominating online events since the early days of SC2, Kas is a player who is always one to fear at any tournament. Most notably taking 3rd place at TSL3. the Ukranian has yet to take a gold at a LAN. However, what he lacks in titles, Kas makes up for in sheer quantity of games. Kas was well known for being one of the hardest working players in EU, often spending 8 to 10 hours a day practicing. Whatever online cup he could find, Kas was there, playing as though it were grand finals of Blizzcon. In recent months, he has petered off, but not enough to write him off.

Kas’s style is decidedly old school. Still using Marine/Tank to this day, Kas plays hot and cold with his opponents. He’ll be aggressive, and then back off and set up a siege position. He’ll drop you, and then sit back and focus on his economy. He has also shown decent mech play before, focusing on a slow build up, followed by an intense, singular push to end the game.

Tefel is famous for all the wrong reasons. Going “full foreigner” against Mvp, to the point where the phrase “going full Tefel” briefly spawned. Being called “The wosr player in the world” by Naniwa. Getting called out again by Naniwa for being “garbage”. The Polish Zerg is actually a relatively good player, more known for his online accomplishments than his LAN play. Coming to prominence in 2011, Tefel has yet to make a serious run in a live tournament.

Tefel’s playstyle seems to reflect whatever the predominant Zerg school of thought is at the time. His initial rise in 2011 and 2012 was facilitated by his excellent late game control with BL-Infestor. In 2013, he showed impressive Swarm Host play. Currently, he’s been playing a mixture of Swarm Host, Roach-Hydra, and Ling-Muta-Bane.

Prediction: Kas 3 - 1 Tefel

Adonminus is unique amongst all of the players in Challenger. He is the only Israeli player in Challenger this season, or any season. A young Protoss, Adon has begun making waves in the European scene, making decent runs in several online cups over the past months. This is his third time in WCS, though he has never hit Premier. The Cascade player still has a lot of room to grow, with his prospects of advancing grim.
Adon’s play is focused around midgame timing attacks. With strong micro, he relies mostly on gateway units to out manuever his opponent, setting up strong concaves with forcefields. His late game strategies don’t pan out as well, with his control falling off at a certain point.

Happy is one of the greatest Warcraft 3 players in the history of Europe. Widely regarded as one of the best Undead players of all time, he found himself in the top 4 at several major events, including Blizzcon and WCG. Since his transition to SC2 early in the Wings of LIberty days, Happy has yet to reach that level of success. A consistent player, Happy always performs well, but has never had that amazing run at any tournament. With a round of 8 finish at Homestory cup last year, Happy looked like he would have good momentum in 2014. However, that hasn’t panned out exactly in his favor. The Empire Terran has lingered in the Ro32 of every event that he’s entered thus far.

Happy’s playstyle is this: If it can be microed, micro the living hell out of it. With a strong bio style, Happy eschews almost anything that isn’t a Marine, Marauder or Medivac. Some say he’s even tried to mine with Concussive Shells. Happy’s TvP is a particularly strong matchup for him. Often usin gdrops to soften up his opponent, Happy is content to meet anywhere on the map, effortlessly and immediately pre-splitting seconds before an engagement starts. No colossi are safe, as the Russian will quickly spread out his army in concaves, microing individuals units if need be. Fine Viking control is also prevalent from the former WC3 pro, only further adding to the Protoss graveyard.

Prediction: Adonminus 0 - 3 Happy

Acer.Bly is someone who should feel very comfortable playing in the offline stages of WCS, as almost all his recent results have come from online qualifiers and cups. Series wins over players like Grubby, NightEnD, Apocalypse, Armani and Alicia over the last month show that he's still capable of taking on other regulars. He has also featured for Acer in ATC, where his record of 3-6 has been quite lackluster, with ZvZ being his weakest matchup at 1-3.
His crazy aggressive playstyle is still tricky for a lot of players to face and could well prevail over Stephano, who is known as a more lategame oriented player. Bly will find his best opportunities if he can make the games his, control their pace and get into his zone.

For Stephano, ZvZ has almost always been the odd one out. Known in Wings of Liberty for his monstrous ZvP and ZvT, the one matchup that often held him back was the zerg mirror. That trend has continued un-retirement: Lone Star Clash, Dreamhack Valencia, WCS EU and Nation Wars all ended with losses to zergs.

And yet it's the matchup that Stephano made his return in, discovering mass swarm host strategies that quickly prompted Blizzard to react. With that playstyle now out of the picture, Stephano's ZvZ has been remodeled to suit the current mass roach metagame. His multitasking with them was impressive at Dreamhack against Sacsri, but the mYi zerg still broke him with intelligent decisionmaking, only taking favorable engagements with his higher tech army. Bly doesn't strike me as someone who could do the same to him in a lategame scenario so the earlier stages could be crucial in this match.

Prediction: Bly 2 - 3 Stephano

A rare Alien Invasion team kill will happen when Patience faces his terran teammate Lillekanin. We haven't seen too much of the Danish terran on the bigger stages, this being his first stint in WCS Challenger. To a lot of community members he's probably best known for the slight drama that sparked when he allegedly stole a 2v2 build and shared it as his own.

Aside from that, he's part of a large crew of Europeans that frequent any kind of online tournament. His last offline tournament was Dreamhack Summer, where he was eliminated rather quickly by MMA, Niroxs and StarNan. There's no doubt that he's the underdog in this match but there's always a certain unpredictability when teammates face one another. Lillekanin might well have other creative builds in store for Patience.

The German-Korean Patience has fallen under the radar for a while, quietly doing work in the EU scene. After an emphatic run through Dreamhack Winter, many expected Patience to stick around and eventually score a big win in Europe. It hasn't come so far. Perhaps his biggest result since then happened last month when Patience took home the 41 Summer Invitational, beating Europe's new zerg king Sacsri twice on his way to victory. Maybe this will finally be his time?

Prediction: Lillekanin 1 - 3 Patience